Social Science Critics
Many critics of Age of Em are critics of social science; they suggest that even though we might be able to use today’s physics or computer science to guess at futures, social science is far less...
View ArticleNo One Rules The World
I’ve talked on my book Age of Em 79 times so far (#80 comes Saturday in Pisa, Italy). As it relies a lot on economics, while I mostly talk to non-econ audiences, I’ve been exposed a lot to how ordinary...
View ArticlePrepare for Nuclear Winter
If a 1km asteroid were to hit the Earth, the dust it kicked up would block most sunlight over most of the world for 3 to 10 years. There’s only a one in a million chance of that happening per year,...
View ArticleAuthentic Signals
Many people (including me) claim that we eat food and drink water because without nutrition and fluids we would starve and dehydrate. Imagine this response: No, people eat food because they are hungry,...
View ArticleTen Could be Twenty or More
Today is the official release date for our book The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life, and I can confirm that a copy sits on the shelf at my local B&N bookstore (across the...
View ArticleSocial Innovation Disinterest Puzzle
Back in 1977, I started out college in engineering, then switched to physics, where I got a BS and MS. After that I spent nine years in computer research, at Lockheed and NASA. In physics, engineering,...
View ArticleRadical Markets
In 1997, I got my Ph.D. in social science from Caltech. The topic that drew me into grad school, and much of what I studied, was mechanism and institution design: how to redesign social practices and...
View ArticleEconomists Rarely Say “Nothing But”
Imagine someone said: Those physicists go too far. They say conservation of momentum applies exactly at all times to absolutely everything in the universe. And yet they can’t predict whether I will...
View ArticleSanctimonious Econ Critics
The New Yorker review of Elephant in the Brain raved about Cents and Sensibility, by Gary Morson and Morton Shapiro, a book said to confirm that “intellectual overextension is often found in...
View ArticleThe Aristillus Series
There’s a contradiction at the heart of science fiction. Science fiction tends to celebrate the engineers and other techies who are its main fans. But there are two conflicting ways to do this. One is...
View ArticleDefrock Deregulation Economists?
Recent economics Nobel prize winner Paul Romer is furious that economists have sometimes argued for deregulation; he wants them “defrocked”, & cast from the profession: New generation of...
View ArticleMissing Model: Too Much Do-Gooding
Grim view of human nature … is mistaken, a persistent and counterproductive myth. … the evidence for mass selfishness is extremely thin. … The surprising truth is that people tend to behave decently...
View ArticleCommon Econ Critiques
Consider this critique of physics: Once upon a time the universe was full of magic, mystery, and majesty, wherein humans lived organically and intuitively with nature. But then physicists (and their...
View ArticleSocialism: A Gift You’d Exchange?
After reading and reviewing a book by a socialism critic, I then did a book by an advocate. Then some told me “No, here is the advocate book you should have read.” I tried one of them: Nathan...
View ArticleLive And Learn
In my last four posts you’ll see a pattern repeated twice: first I participate in “ground” talk on a particular issue, then I stand back and reflect on some patterns in that ground talk. I see this as...
View ArticleRoemer’s Socialism
Several times before I have posted on trying to figure out what just people mean when they propose “socialism”, and which variations seem how attractive. I just tried this exercise again, this time...
View ArticleMy Old Man Rant
As a 62 year old man, I think I’m entitled to rant once in a while. But instead of “you kids get off my lawn!”, this is my rant: In principle, economics can help advise most any decisions, like when to...
View ArticleDealism
We economists, and also other social scientists and policy specialists, are often criticized as follows: You recommend some policies over others, and thus make ethical choices. Yet your analyses are...
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Hail Industrial Organization
(ngrams) Economists know many useful things about human social behavior, and about how to improve it. And the world would probably be better off if it listened to economists more. But while the world...
View ArticleDo Helping Professions Help More?
A student told me the other day he wanted to be a doctor, so he could help people. I thought, "What, as opposed to the rest of us who hurt people?" Contrary to the smug self-righteousness assumptions...
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