Sharing Economy

Biological Parallel

Sharing economy: underutilized resources made available to others. Biology's version: communal resources and shared infrastructure. Prairie dog burrow systems are shared—individuals dig and maintain, but all benefit from collective refuge network. Mycorrhizal networks transfer nutrients between trees—excess carbon from sunny trees subsidizes shaded neighbors. The mechanism: resource sharing when excess capacity exists and sharing costs are low. But sharing requires enforcement: cheaters who use but don't contribute get excluded (prairie dogs fill burrows of non-contributors). Sharing economies need governance or tragedy of the commons emerges.