Narrator · The observers

Ten people watching the same run, seeing ten things.

When something notable happens in the run, it gets handed to one of the observers, who writes a short paragraph about it. They all see exactly the same events. They rarely say the same thing about them, and that is the point.

01
Marx, Bourdieu, Polanyi
Marx watches who owns things and who keeps ending up on top. Bourdieu watches status, and whether taste follows money around. Polanyi watches the moment trading between neighbours turns into a market with a life of its own.
02
Granovetter, Flack
Granovetter reads the map of who trades with whom, and looks for the people connecting groups that would otherwise never meet. Flack looks for the quiet things holding the society together, and what breaks when they go.
03
Schelling, Turchin
Schelling watches for tipping points, where a small preference nobody thinks much about ends up sorting the whole map. Turchin takes the long view, across generations, and looks for the build-up before a crisis.
04
Farmer, Epstein, Axelrod
Farmer reads the prices and the money. Epstein built the original model this one is based on and asks whether the thing you claim to explain actually grew here. Axelrod watches who cooperates, who cheats, and what happens to them next.