32 quotes found
"Advanced technology is great at tasks such as keeping an airliner flying several thousand feet in the air, but is easily crippled by social complications."
"The invisible hand is an emergent property of this system, which never reaches an optimal equilibrium, but instead is fundamentally dynamic and unstable, with complex effects on society."
"Mathematics was not just about keeping track of were the moon was going, but also where the money was going."
"There is something intrinsically upside down and counter-intuitive in the relationship between money and happiness."
"A society in which each person is hell bent on maximizing his or her own utility, may therefore have declining overall utility."
"If the aim of economics is really to provide the greatest happiness to the most people, than it is rather shocking to discover that economic growth has no net effect on happiness. So what has gone wrong with the neoclassical prospect?"
"For even money itself has no value if there is no network of people to recognize it."
"Money, having freed itself from the physical universe, has become number itself, and finance a strange form of mathematical alchemy."
"The race to the moon was never really about the moon - its utility didn't rest in samples of moon rock. It was about capitalism versus communism, right versus left."
"Perfect order is boring, perfect randomness is boring, but complex systems are interesting."
"Adam Smith's invisible hand does exist, but as an emergent property of a complex system. It has a fuzzy tendency to reduce big price discrepancies, but it acts in a rather haphazard way."
"Not only is Homo economicus self-centered, he is a murdering psychopath. However, as with much of neoclassical economic thought, there is an element of circularity here."
"Economists often talk about the benefits of choice, but rational economic man doesn't actually have much freedom to chose, because he is a slave to his own preferences."
"The strength of capitalism does not lie in the neoclassical idea of stability, but in its ability to unleash this creative energy. like a chaotic mathematical system, it is capable of producing surprise."
"The market can quickly seize up. Prices don't adjust in a smooth continuous fashion, but instead abruptly reconfigure themselves, like the earth's crust during an earthquake."
"It has become increasingly evident, at least among those who aren't currency traders or true believers in the optimality of free markets, that it would be nice if this system could calm down a touch. One option is the Tobin tax, which would impose a tax of around 0.1 percent on currency trades, and act as a kind of damper on speculation."
"To build a genuinely sustainable economy, we need to recognize and embrace the dynamic nature of the world, and free ourselves from the dead holds of static dogma."
"Orthodox tools based on a normal distribution therefore fail exactly where they are most needed, at the extremes."
"The economy is crooked not straight; and mainstream economists are like flat-earthers who keep saying the world is flat despite all the evidence to the contrary."
"The economy is a nonlinear fractal system, where the smallest scales are linked to the largest, and the decisions of the central bank are affected by the gut instincts of the people on the street."
"It can be annoying to find out the name of a famous local landmark has no significance other than belonging to some distant relation or drinking buddy of the explorer."
"The neoclassical dogma of diminishing returns is completely wrong - success begets success and wealth begets wealth."
"The idea that money begets money, and that the rich and powerful enjoy unfair advantages, goes against what we are taught - or like to believe - about the capitalist system."
"The entire thrust of neoclassical thought is to argue that the free market economy is an efficient system that will optimize utility for all mankind, if only government will get out of the way. It therefore departs from classical economists such as Adam Smith, who recognized the importance of governments for regulating markets and preventing monopolies."
"The real reason for the longevity of the neoclassical model have less to do with science, and more to do with the social dynamics of the universities that propagate it, and its appeal to a particular mindset."
"To balance the economy, we need first to balance our priorities, and abandon rigid ideologies."
"I don’t know, maybe it’s a family trait, when I get in front of the camera, I just kind of go for it and it works out."
"Never cease to be amazed that you exist."
"AI will not solve poverty, because the conditions that lead to societies that pursue profit over people are not technical. AI will not solve discrimination, because the cultural patterns that say one group of people is better than another because of their gender, their skin color, the way they speak, their height, or their wealth are not technical. AI will not solve climate change, because the political and economic choices that exploit the earth’s resources are not technical matters. As tempting as it may be, we cannot use AI to sidestep the hard work of organizing society so that where you are born, the resources of your community, and the labels placed upon you are not the primary determinants of your destiny. We cannot use AI to sidestep conversations about patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, or who holds power and who doesn’t."
"Defaults are not neutral. They often reflect the coded gaze—the preferences of those who have the power to choose what subjects to focus on"
"If you have a face, you have a place in the conversation about AI."
"How will people build professional callouses if the early work that may be viewed as mundane essentials are taken over by AI systems?"