Peter and Inspiration

7 May 2008 at 12:17 am Randy Westgren 4 comments

| Randy Westgren |

Before enplaning for Vancouver, I spent a great day at the University of Missouri with Peter Klein and his (local) colleagues. I discovered that Peter and I share a common interest in the fiction of Richard Powers, a novelist whose works draw from the biological, physical, cognitive, and information sciences. Moreover, Peter acknowledged that his favorite Powers novel is The Gold Bug Variations; it’s my favorite as well. I finished my second reading on the airplane and found a passage that incites this post:

The world we know, the living, interlocked world, is a lot more complex than any market. The market is a poor simulation of of the ecosystem; market models will never more than parody the increasingly complex web of interdependent nature. (First edition, p. 411)

I agree that market models are pale abstractions compared to any ecosystem. But I have studied a great many models of ecosystems (dynamic system simulations, agent-based simulations, statistical models of species interactions, analytical models of populations) and find them to be pale abstractions of ecosystems, as well. I will propose — for refutation — that most market models I see are less interesting than ecosystem models; they are still undersocialized in the Granovetter sense. The ecological models seem to require more attention paid to the social interactions of the individuals.

Just a thought.

Entry filed under: Ephemera, Former Guest Bloggers, Methods/Methodology/Theory of Science.

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4 Comments Add your own

1. Rafe Champion | 7 May 2008 at 6:29 am

He could have said that any model of the market is only a poor simulation of the actual market, in the same way that all our models of ecosystems are poor simulations of ecosystems etc etc …ad infinitum. But you already said that, so one has to ask, does he know what point was he trying to make?

Interventionists can learn something from environmental studies that they might like to apply to markets. Have a good look downstream from the intervention and see what you find! The “dead fish” may be some way distant in time and space but if you know how to analyse the system you will find them.
2. brayden | 7 May 2008 at 8:41 am

I’ve only read one novel by Powers, The Echomaker, which I thought was incredibly entertaining and interesting. One thing I liked about it was that Powers was able to get into the academic mind in a way that few authors can. Most professors in literature are caricatures, but the psychologist in The Echomaker seemed very familiar and real to me.
3. randyw | 7 May 2008 at 9:06 am

Brayden, Powers’ office is in the Beckman Institute (www.beckman.uiuc.edu), which has a large research group on cognitive sciences. He sits among these scientists and has obviously thrown himself into this subject, as well as others (artificial intelligence, human-machine interface). Professors figure often in Powers’ novels. Try Galatea 2.2, wherein he tries to train a computer to pass comprehensive exams in English lit!
4. brayden | 7 May 2008 at 11:36 am

Thanks for recommendation Randy. I have to visit the library today anyway, and so I’ll be happy to pick up some pleasure reading.