Unlike dice, markets are subject not merely to risk, an arithmetic concept, but also to the broader uncertainty that shadows the future generally. Unfortunately, uncertainty, as opposed to risk, is an indefinite condition, one that does not conform to numerical straitjackets. The professors blurred this crucial distinction; they sent their mathematical Frankenstein gamely into the world as if it could tame the element of chance in life itself. No self-doubt tempered them; no sense of perspective checked them as they wagered such staggering sums.
