Mirowski, Philip, and Edward Nik-Khah (2017): The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information
The economy – of neoclassical economics (e.g. the mainstream of contemporary economic thought) is an interesting object of investigation for understanding the world view (ideology) of cybernetics for three interrelated reasons:
The economy is a totality, so that cyberneticians cannot escape into a subsystem. They are forced to deal with a/the whole.
For the same reason, calculation is not enough in economics: neoclassical economics posits the market as the ultimate information processor (which delivers the goal of the market, i.e. the optimal allocation of resources). Therefore, no one economist or even the profession as a whole can produce an understanding of the market. Therefore, economists let go of the traditional goal of an academic discipline — the systematic construction of knowledge around some core questions – in favour of a quasi-religious relationship to the proper subject of their discipline. Perhaps surprisingly, then, economics-as-cybernetics presents us an opening to cybernetics-as-religion, magic, etc. This is one of the possible future directions we identified in the last summary session.
Generally, neoclassical economics presents a version of the classic cybernetics model that goes beyond mere rationality, “the mechanisation of the mind”, or even the reduction of everything to information and the undermining of meaning and essence through diagrammatics.
A:
as science becomes increasingly concerned with the ordering and securing of things and the real appears as standing-reserve, it becomes uninterested in investigating their causes and their grounds; efficient causality leaves place to efficiency of effects.
Mentioned
About the WallStreetBets controversy: https://onezero.medium.com/how-lulz-took-down-wall-street-4b7e2bc457f1
About market hacktivism (?):
Book: Why things fail?
From Goodreads:
This book is well within the radical free market tradition of Hayek to which is added what might be considered a conservative and even pessimistic respect for the fact that millions of minds in real time with imperfect knowledge cannot know the future and that most planning is futile.
…
What he seems to miss is one Marxist concept that got thrown out of the > bath with the bath water - consciousness. His evolutionary models for economics are based on things (plants, animals and most humans) that are not self-reflexive, are not aware of themselves as actors in the drama.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1525850637?book_show_action=true
What he seems to miss is one Marxist concept that got thrown out of the bath with the bath water - consciousness. His evolutionary models for economics are based on things (plants, animals and most humans) that are not self-reflexive, are not aware of themselves as actors in the drama.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1525850637?book_show_action=true
From Library Genesis:
Failure is the most fundamental feature of biological, social and > economic systems. Just as species fail—and become extinct—so do companies, brands and public policies. And while failure may be hard to handle, understanding the pervasive nature of failure in the world of human societies and economies is essential for those looking to succeed.
Linking economic models with models of biological evolution, Why Most Things Fail identifies the subtle patterns that comprise the apparent disorder of failure and analyzes why failure arises. Throughout the book, author Paul Ormerod exposes the flaws in some of today's most basic economic assumptions, and examines how professionals in both business and government can help their organizations survive and thrive in a world that has become too complex. Along the way, Ormerod discusses how the Iron Law of Failure applies to business and government, and reveals how you can achieve optimal social and economic outcomes by properly adapting to a world characterized by constant change, evolution and disequilibrium. Filled with in-depth insight, expert advice and illustrative examples, Why Most Things Fail will show you why failure is so common and what you can do to become one of the few who succeed.
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=42E0F82F02F154490BDD2F0EAD515B4F
References
Mirowski, Philip, and Edward Nik-Khah. 2017. The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.