313 Carlos Martí Sempere An evolutionary view of defence In other words, this theory analyses the cumulative process through which humans adopt the means in order to reach their ends. This learning process, whereby a new capability is obtained, is constructed from the present, that is, by introducing changes to current capabilities. The point of departure and the route followed in the exploration determine the final result. The search can be dictated by heuristic methods,5 conjectures with a greater or lesser foundation or even simply by pure chance. In this context one can achieve a locally optimal capability; however, better capabilities might exist, but are not achieved because they have been unexplored. This can be seen more clearly in the example of figure I which shows the usefulness of a solution (axis Z) with regard to two internal parameters (axes X and Y). The search for the best option, if carried out in the lower left-hand quadrant, can only manage to achieve a local optimum, while it is necessary to move to the centre of the figure in order to obtain a global optimum. Thus the final result is conditioned by the exploration route selected.6 Figure I. An example of the roughness of the innovation landscape. This process of change remains permanent for various reasons. In the first instance, because historic changes in the socioeconomic system tend to impose exogenous changes on the economic context and new, quite unfamiliar problems for the actors differing from those of the past.7 Secondly, because the proper process of adaptatiocan end up affecting its own ends and, therefore, these will ultimately vary. 5 Although logic and deduction are especially useful when it comes to intuitively sensing the correct paths, they are not enough and at some stage it is necessary to test whether the hypotheses are correct. 6 On this subject, see David, P. A. “Path Dependence, its critics and the quest for ‘historical economics’” in Evolution and Path Dependence in Economic Ideas: Past and Present, edited by P. Garrouste and S. Ioannides. England: Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham. 2000. 7 Nelson, Richard. “¿What enables rapid economic progress: what are the needed institutions?” Research Policy, 2008: 1-11. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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