There's this wonderful thought exercise Harlow Shapley, an American astronomer, did many years ago. He said, what happens to one breath of air?
for - BEing Journey - argon gas - Gedanken - thought experiment - Harlow Shapley - intertwingledness - David Suzuki
Robinson Crusoe’s experiences are a favourite theme with political economists
Marx refers to the thought experiment, common in economics, which is sometimes called Robinson Crusoe economics.
Doing "Robinson Crusoe economics" consists in imagining what can be learned, if anything, from a one agent economy that will provide insight into a real world economy with lots of agents.