Monthly Archives: March 2009

economics

There are two basic principles on which economics is based, and they are both false. 1. People act in their own best self-interest. In fact, that doesn’t always happen – it’s demonstrable that people don’t do this. They have social, … Continue reading

Posted in economics, theory of knowledge | Comments Off

archives

Are there any types of information which are not currently being collected and recorded? Or is the question more about how to make information – which has already been abstracted out of reality – more accessible?

Posted in information architecture, information theory | Comments Off

too big to fail

The big book I’ve just started, Re-engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings, points out that errors and failures are a key part of our learning process. If we were to accomplish the “goal” of many theories and methods of stopping errors … Continue reading

Posted in cultural evolution, education, philosophy of science | Comments Off

http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13315818&source=hptextfeature It’s very interesting to think about the process of commercializing scientific research. I wonder how formalized the process is at MIT and other large research universities – maybe there’s the potential for a research project there.

Posted in business, news, philosophy of science | Comments Off

open source bank

the title on an article from wired.com today gave me the impression that someone was going to create a p2p bank – a financial trading/loan mechanism hosted and owned by thousands of loosely affiliated individuals, with no central control or … Continue reading

Posted in geopolitical theory, government, news, power theory | Comments Off

subintelligitur

I’ve been subscribing to Anu Garg’s word of the day for a couple of years now, mostly for the quotes at the bottom of the email. But sometimes a new word jumps out at me, and its etymology suggests to … Continue reading

Posted in art, communication, cultural evolution | Comments Off

David Foster Wallace as visionary

Reading in the New Yorker about David Foster Wallace today was kind of surreal. The story reminds me of myself on many levels, but I was surprised to feel that I would have had a lot more empathy with him … Continue reading

Posted in design theory | Comments Off

presenting

I’ve been unsure the last couple of days about my end-of-quarter presentations. I don’t have that sharp, clear feeling that we have achieved the level of simplicity and deep insight that I normally associate with success. Yet it seems that … Continue reading

Posted in communication, meta recursion philosophy loa, school | Comments Off