Roger Koppl was been banging on about knowledge monopolies for the last year or so. I’ve heard comments to the effect: “What business is it of an economist meddling in the world of forensics?” Roger makes the point crystal clear in a recent posting of his. I quote the punchline: The issue is not getting the…
I came across this nice article by Ted Gioia entitled Exhuming Robert Musil: A Fresh Look at The Man Without Qualities. Here is an excerpt: The Man Without Qualities depicts a strange world in which a couple is given a copy of Nietzsche as a wedding gift, a murderer on death row spends his days…
I’d like to give a plug to a blog that’s just been started by some members of the Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes at the Department of Economics, New York University – ThinkMarkets. With names like Mario Rizzo, Bill Butos, Gene Callahan and Roger Koppl involved (this is no slight on the other contributors…
I came across this pretty impressive video of Boston Dynamics’ BigDog robot. Click on image below to view.
Colin McGinn poses a fair question: if Obama is half white why is he considered black? Colin is of course making the point that essentialism in these issues is not sustainable and this is reflected in the variety of very good responses to his question, perspectives that bring in fine-grained distinctions that would have never occured to…
If you’ve ever heard the term “extended mind” and thought it denoted some sort of hocus pocus, then this recording will set you straight. Zoe Drayson of Bristol University has recorded a superb overview of the notion and the ethical implications arising from it. Zoe’s motivation for coming to this multidisciplinary literature had resonance for…
Once again a superb posting by Vitorino Ramos on his blog. Heretofore I’d not been aware of the existence of hobo signs or the gum election, both of which nicely illustrate the various conceptual lenses associated with distributed cognition/knowledge. I’ll definitely be invoking these ideas. Good stuff! I also notice another posting about Brian Arthur’s El Farol Bar…
This past weekend I had the good fortune to be able to attend the Second Conference on Emergent Order and Society held in Portsmouth, NH. The term “conference” doesn’t really characterise the format – it is more akin to a colloquium where the emphasis is on genuine discussion and conversation in an intimate group (18 in all)…
For those who have been following the work of Andy Clark – Natural-Born Cyborgs – and his latest – Supersizing the Mind – not mention Ray Kurzweil (and The Matrix) – should enjoy this article from Scientific American (November 2008, pp. 56-61). Not included here are two subsections that outline progress and propspects for neurotechnology (“How…
manwithoutqualities 