Collective awareness, or the models that we use to understand the world

edge.org

85 points·weirdtunguska··5 comments

Summary: "Economic failures cause us serious problems. We need to build simulations of the economy at a much more fine-grained level that take advantage of all the data that computer technologies and the Internet provide us with. "

I would whole heartily agree with this vision however the reason I think this doesnt happen is political. Currently there is always debate about the economic result of policy change (eg. change in minimum wage). If economic outcomes were "known" it would remove the political power of economists.

It would also remove a lot of political power of politicians. A large part of of politics is making sure everyone thinks you act in their best interest. But if the outcome of your policies would be known beforehand instead of only appearing years later it would be immedietly obvious who profits and who looses. Of course most politicians have no interest in this.

In the end, I expect politicians to try and sabotage public trust in such systems. It'll be easy, as 99% of people woulndn't have enough knowledge to verify the results, or even distinguish them from a clever RNG.

For anyone like me who was interested in how he beat roulette https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Doyne_Farmer#Beating_roul...

OT: Why has this post been near the top with almost no engagement?

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