[3] Brian Arthur has elaborated how the theory is related to the mechanism of genetic recombination from evolutionary biology and in which aspects it differs.
[6] Technology (which Richta defines as "a material entity created by the application of mental and physical effort to nature in order to achieve some value") evolves in three stages: tools, machine, automation.
Tools allow one to do things impossible to accomplish with one's body alone, such as seeing minute visual detail with a microscope, manipulating heavy objects with a pulley and cart, or carrying volumes of water in a bucket.
Putting a machine on the farm, a tractor, increased food productivity at least tenfold over the technology of the plow and the horse.
Examples of machines that exhibit this characteristic are digital watches, automatic telephone switches, pacemakers, and computer programs.
Each of these three stages outline the introduction and development of the fundamental types of technology, and all three continue to be widely used today.