Actually reasonably good. Just suffers from the standard pop non-fiction writing issues which while grating to me, might actually make it more enjoyabActually reasonably good. Just suffers from the standard pop non-fiction writing issues which while grating to me, might actually make it more enjoyable for a wider audience....more
Mirowski is a fun writer. Describing Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson's work in Economics as:
High mathematical rigor is regularly forced to cohabit
Mirowski is a fun writer. Describing Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson's work in Economics as:
High mathematical rigor is regularly forced to cohabit with low semantic comedy.
requires some chutzpah.
Despite this I can't say it's an easy read for everyone, there is a bunch of math and technical discussion which may not make as much sense without the appropriate background. Intuitively some of the things do make sense. However coming from multi-agent systems literature people are now more aware of non-transitive relationships, path dependence in optimization and "alternative" equilibria to better characterize actual agent behaviors so would love to know find out what effect the book had on the Economics community and if things have changed at the ground level now. ...more
Parts that I understood were great (and very readable interesting sentences). But really need to read up on Heidegger to really get some of the techniParts that I understood were great (and very readable interesting sentences). But really need to read up on Heidegger to really get some of the technicalities (which I haven't either :( )....more
The author is George Bernard Shaw's granddaughter. Published in late 1920s, the text gives an interesting picture of origins of feminism and how so liThe author is George Bernard Shaw's granddaughter. Published in late 1920s, the text gives an interesting picture of origins of feminism and how so little has been resolved since then in terms of discourse....more
First third of the book is a brilliant exposition of how/why physics "works". Second third of the book is an intro to Category Theory and the final thFirst third of the book is a brilliant exposition of how/why physics "works". Second third of the book is an intro to Category Theory and the final third of the book completes the argument for why physics is the wrong substrate for understanding complexity as is always there in biology/life. To be honest, I don't fully grok the argument for category theory itself and likely need to read an intro to Category Theory someplace else to really get it. I overall buy the argument for alternative modeling approaches (honestly I can't articulate it as well but I feel the book's argument is not very far saying that having a neural-network modeling the relational function between entities should be fine for scientific models) But would recommend even just for the first third of the book!...more
Great timeless observations about problems with modernity; bad proposed solutions. But again having already read stuff by James C. Scott or Eric HoffeGreat timeless observations about problems with modernity; bad proposed solutions. But again having already read stuff by James C. Scott or Eric Hoffer, this is not surprising. Should definitely be more widely read than it is right now....more
Nietzsche is so much fun to read! Kanye has nothing on him in pomposity. My favorite part was `HOW THE "TRUE WORLD" FINALLY BECAME A FABLE`.Nietzsche is so much fun to read! Kanye has nothing on him in pomposity. My favorite part was `HOW THE "TRUE WORLD" FINALLY BECAME A FABLE`....more
An alternative viewpoint (than say Freud or Jaynes) for understanding behaviors associated with schizophrenia based on the "anti-"philosophy of later An alternative viewpoint (than say Freud or Jaynes) for understanding behaviors associated with schizophrenia based on the "anti-"philosophy of later Wittgenstein....more
Interesting thesis. Same argument/thesis style as in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind: reinterpretation of older texInteresting thesis. Same argument/thesis style as in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind: reinterpretation of older texts and identifying similar patterns. I do think there is something there to the thesis but I should probably read Girard's other stuff because this book doesn't go into as much detail into the concept of mimesis which is quite important to the argument here....more
A bit miffed because I was hoping that the intransitive nature of human preferences would also be discussed. Otherwise good discussion of what the worA bit miffed because I was hoping that the intransitive nature of human preferences would also be discussed. Otherwise good discussion of what the word preference should represent in the world of economics....more
In my opinion, the actual examples were not as helpful in understanding the practice of reflection in action (or maybe it would be better on a second In my opinion, the actual examples were not as helpful in understanding the practice of reflection in action (or maybe it would be better on a second read), but overall a good read for me just to give words to describe how research goes "in practice". The book draws attention to the important fact that a lot of professional expertise is about the framing of the problem rather than anything else. Also nice tid-bits about the history of "profession" in US and problems with how the separation between academia and practice; especially how putting one kind of knowledge with more prestige than the other has resulted into bad incentives. ...more
Lots of interesting details especially w.r.t. American ancient history and effect of local climate and geology on the local religion and civilization.Lots of interesting details especially w.r.t. American ancient history and effect of local climate and geology on the local religion and civilization. Contrast with Old World, Eurasia was quite useful, but approximately alternate chapter threading could be handled better. ...more
A very compelling description of what now seems like one of the worst time in history: the 1918 "Spanish flu". Although it's somewhat unfortunate thatA very compelling description of what now seems like one of the worst time in history: the 1918 "Spanish flu". Although it's somewhat unfortunate that Barry decides to be in constant epic mode to hold the reader's attention:
It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.
As if the numbers themselves: 25-100 million dead isn't enough which was worse than the first world war itself.
Major takeaway for me was how it seems that policy makers have learned nothing. Or more likely history repeats itself because we forget that when it comes to a pandemic:
Main point of the book is that both democracies and market alternatives based in the principle of liberalism and individual preference satisfaction isMain point of the book is that both democracies and market alternatives based in the principle of liberalism and individual preference satisfaction is not a evolutionary stable strategy for the group with those values with main point being that such societies have fewer children. As an outside reader, I'm likely missing the academic context of the debate. While, most of the book actually does try to summarize what it's objecting to (probably too much), it always comes back to the same point of liberalism/individualism being anti-natalist. To me, this seems fixable within the realms of the society remaining liberal, but it was still a good review of the debates from Hayek to Polyani. Good to have a reminder once in a while that humans are neither completely individualistic selfish or communally altruistic and there are always compromises to be made....more
I enjoyed the book quite a bit (partly maybe because it's in my wheelhouse, research wise). It gave more rigor to somIt's time for some game theory...
I enjoyed the book quite a bit (partly maybe because it's in my wheelhouse, research wise). It gave more rigor to some of my intuitions about why some of the things are the way they are in our society. Be it gendered roles or racial inequalities. And how some of these differences can arise from no fault the individuals involved (counter to some of the currently popular theories on sexism, racism etc). The book uses fairly simple ideas from evolutionary game theory and models these various interactions as simple games to demonstrate how easily agents can reach these "unfair" equilibrium solutions to the game in the process of optimizing their own benefits. I haven't read the original papers so I am taking the author at their words that the results are robust to model perturbations.
Most fun thing about the book is that no side (left/right; progressive/conservative) will really come out happy after reading this book.
I might be biased as such, but I don't completely agree with the conclusion as much. The author advocates using social justice ideas to try to change the equilibrium. But none of the included research actually says that it would result into any better equilibrium and that there may not be any way to obtain one (from game theory equilibrium selection problems are quite hard and there are no guarantees that a dynamical system can actually reach some)....more
Interesting ramifications for the goal of "human-like AI".
Some excerpts:
In my view the answer is as follows. I believe the world is
Wise and timeless.
Interesting ramifications for the goal of "human-like AI".
Some excerpts:
In my view the answer is as follows. I believe the world is totally connected: that is to say, that there are no events anywhere in the universe which are not tied to every other event in the universe. I regard this to some extent as a metaphysical statement, although you will see, as I develop it in the next lecture, it has a much more down-to-earth content than that. But I will repeat it: I believe that every event in the world is connected to every other event. But you cannot carry on science supposition that you are going to be able to connect every event with every other event. Even when you set a computer such a simple problem as playing a good game of chess on the hypothesis that the computer is really going to think out every consequence, it breaks down hopelessly. It is, therefore, an essential part of the methodology of science to divide the world for any experiment into what we regard as relevant and what we regard, for purpose of that experiment, as irrelevant.
Nature is not a gigantic formalizable system. In order to formalize it, we have to make some assumptions which cut out some parts. We then lose the total connectivity. And what we get is a superb metaphor, but it is not a system which can embrace the whole of nature. We are really saying that there is no system of axioms which can embrace the whole of nature, or for that matter the whole of mathematics. We therefore cannot attain the great wish that we have had ever since the days of Thomas Hobbes and Newton: we will never be able to exhibit the whole of physics one fine day as a gorgeous system with a six axioms and a few operations, and from that moment everything would fall into place. You would know when for example, flowers that grow at high altitude are often blue, whereas flowers that grow at low altitude are often red. Anything that you could ask would follow from the axiomatic system. That is obviously a hopeless task. What I have been trying to show is that whether you approach it in a strictly formal way from the mathematics or in the more informal way in which I discussed it in the last lecture, you always come to the same conclusion: no formal system embraces all the questions that can be asked.
I was surprised to see so many "I"s when describing his research and the process behind. So different from biology research these days.
Some of the adI was surprised to see so many "I"s when describing his research and the process behind. So different from biology research these days.
Some of the advice about the role of theory and experiments seem generally applicable to all research! Having thought a little more about this, I don't think I can make a general statement like this. Overall I agree with Crick that theory should guide us in figuring out new experiments. However, given the lack of theory in a lot of "empirical" experiment driven fields like psychology, it might be useful if more people thought about theory before running an experiment....more
I'm ignoring the standard BS such a "best-seller" pop-science book has to be laden with. The standard screed to holistically think about the effect of I'm ignoring the standard BS such a "best-seller" pop-science book has to be laden with. The standard screed to holistically think about the effect of product design would likely be considered uncontroversial by literally anyone. Kudos to the authors for clearly pointing out out how many "eco-friendly" products are not necessarily better than their previous "non-eco-friendly" ones and there are always trade-offs to be made in all engineering problems.
What's interesting to me is that this book was apparently a best-seller a decade ago. For an "environmentalist" book it's surprisingly cheerful and optimistic compared to standard, almost hopeless, rhetoric of such activism now. Did the ideas in the book seep so well in the corporate culture that it's no longer newsworthy? Or does it reflect the utter failure of the ideas in the book to equate to any real tangible gains? Hard for me to tell....more
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