“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” (George Bernard Shaw) U.S. middle class living standards have been more or less stagnant over recent decades, and the same is true in most of the developed world. Inequality has both been a cause and consequence, as whatever economic growth experienced has disproportionately accrued to the social elite. But who exactly are …
The Urgency for an Enlightenment 2.0
April 30, 2021When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. (Eric Hoffer) It is well known that rationality and science emerged during the Age of Enlightenment. Many indeed attribute human progress over the past few centuries to reason and discovery. Despite a Romantic reaction against some of the worst excesses of the Industrial Revolution, there is little doubt that human reason, empiricism, and science ultimately became the dominant world view. The “defeat” of Romanticism …
The Multitude of Things That Fungi Can Teach Us
April 19, 2021Merlin Sheldrake’s recent book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, is astonishing – truly one of a kind. The author is an exceedingly rare case of a scientific specialist with a superb gift for writing. In this gem of a book the reader encounters the multitude of things that fungi can teach us about the world and about ourselves. There is much here that is awe-inspiring to contemplate. Who could ever imagine …
Are We Approaching a Tipping Point?
March 8, 2021Texas has been on my mind lately. No, I’m not a Republican, and I’m not crazy about hot weather. That is, in fact, the problem. Texas has been in the recent news, but not because of its heat. Quite the contrary. An unexpected winter storm last month stressed the electric grid in Texas and almost brought it down. Bill Magness, president and chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), said Texas was “seconds and minutes” from complete …
Path Dependence and the Folly of Incrementalism
February 28, 2021“History matters” (Robert Jensen) I am currently teaching a seminar entitled “Rethinking Progress.” One recurring topic in our discussions is the modern world’s present rate of technological advance in the absence of commensurate progress in the social sphere. My students sense an ominous imbalance and probable environmental overshoot. I want them to see the folly of incrementalism as a solution, yet do not want them to see me as preaching revolution. I therefore believe an understanding of path dependence to …
Is Progress “Progressive?”
February 6, 2021It is not only because I am presently running a seminar on progress that I write about it here, although it has inspired me. Economic progress is a subject that has interested me for my entire career, and much of my research and writing is devoted to it. But progress is an idea that goes far beyond economics. It is, for example, related to politics, which is from where we hear the term “progressive.” But is progress progressive? What does progress even …
Remember Climate Change?
January 31, 2021“I’ve starred in a lot of science fiction movies and, let me tell you something, climate change is not science fiction. This is a battle in the real world, it is impacting us right now.” (Arnold Schwarzenegger) The current pandemic has made us mostly, at least temporarily, forget climate change. Climate change will be with us for a long time to come, so keeping it newsworthy was challenging even before Covid-19 hit us. But it is important not to forget about it. …
Are Economists Really Clueless about Uncertainty?
January 24, 2021I am seriously beginning to think that economists do not understand uncertainty, even what it means. What other conclusion can I draw from responses to my letter to the Financial Times this week? In it, I agree with and applaud a columnist on her jaundiced perspective regarding “expert opinion.” But more to the point, I directly criticize economists’ take on uncertainty by stating: …In my own field, the meaning of “uncertainty” is limited to complete knowledge of all the possible …
True Artificial Intelligence Has Arrived
January 16, 2021Artificial intelligence (AI) is not my area of expertise, but I suppose that being a generalist gives me license to comment on it. And anyway, the implications of AI could be far reaching for economics – and humanity in general, of course. In a liberating or in a very scary way, depending on which path we follow with it. But that’s for another time. Today I want to focus on the technology itself. Progress that we have made with chess …
More Musings on Generalism
January 10, 2021I recently read Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. It’s a bit late for a formal review since the book is over five years old. But in case you haven’t read it, the book is fascinating. Harari manages to convey so much historical information in an extraordinarily clear and concise manner. Despite its far-reaching scope, Harari manages to come across as profound and radical. I do not mean radical in the “leftist” or “extreme” sense, rather in …
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