The Skeptical Optimist

Where did my images go?

Did you notice that my banner image is gone?  I did, too.  Also, images on older posts are missing.  TypePad has not responded to my questions yet. 

Just in case you were wondering what was going on.  I have zero time for technical maintenance, so I'm depending on TypePad to get this fixed.

On a more positive note, right out of left field: Anyone who can listen to this song by Buddy Guy (through good speakers), and not feel like getting up and dancing, has some faulty wiring upstairs -- in my expert judgment, of course.  Being a baby boomer might be a requirement, though.

FQ.08.20: Favorite Quote for This Week

Economists [according to Martin Wolf] used to discuss two basic concepts, capital and labor. But these are now commodities, widely available to everyone. What distinguishes economics today are ideas and energy. A country can prosper if it is a source of ideas or energy for the world.
—Fareed Zakaria

Why I'll continue this blog

I've been buried for a while, as you may have noticed from the decrease in posting activity here.  Intense project activity, a planned vacation, and a few unplanned events have recently taken a big toll on my writing schedule. 

I intend to keep this blog going, even with my intensified time constraints.  The fundamental theme will continue to be the crippling effect that false fears of deficits and debt have on the national discourse about the economy and our future. 

Those false fears are played expertly, like a fiddle, by politicians and interest groups who (should) know better.  Those false fears are therefore crowding out critical time for debating better ways to innovate, grow the economy, grow our real incomes, and enhance national security—all for the benefit of future generations. 

This blog's basic message:

Our enemies are not deficits and debt.  Our enemies are those who, for their own gain, play on fears of deficits and debt; i.e., those who place higher priority on the money than on what we get for the money.  Investments today that prevent war or enhance growth, even if we choose to finance those investments with a measure of borrowing, are far more important to future generations than disinvestments today that create politically-popular, feel-good surpluses or "balanced budgets" at the expense of war prevention or growth enhancement. 

Unfortunately, that message doesn't seem to be making much progress, even though I've been hammering at it for more than three years.  That's disappointing, but I'll keep at it.  It's an important message, even though it's counterintuitive: our grandkids will be better served if we stop obsessing about deficits and debt, and start obsessing about investing for them, growing their incomes, and enhancing their security.

The state of science in 2008

My project's end is still not in sight, but it requires at least a peripheral understanding of most of the topics covered in this new book I discovered at the bookstore last week. 

John Brockman interviewed several prominent thinkers on the leading edge of the soft sciences, then translated their responses into a series of articles in this book, which I cannot put down.  If you've never heard of Steven Pinker or Ray Kurzweil, you need to buy this book and read it.  If you have heard of either of them, you should still buy the book and read it. 

Evolution (specifically, selection and adaptation) is a process that is definitely not restricted to biology.  Social science pundits of all persuasions have reasons to resist the encroachment of Darwin's theory on their fields—our evolved tendency to employ "belief preservation" is our fundamental reason for resisting—but resistance is futile.  Evolution explains a lot more than most of us had thought, and it's helping to explain things in the social sciences, such as economics and psychology, that are upsetting traditional applecarts. 

I guess that's why I'm enjoying the book so much.  I love it when innovation and discovery upsets cherished applecarts.

The book is Science at the Edge, by John Brockman.  If you buy it from that link, I'll make almost fifty cents from Amazon. If you can't wait for Amazon to deliver it, go get it at your bookstore.

FQ.08.19: Favorite Quote for This Week

Elite universities [in the twentieth century] nudged science out of the liberal arts undergraduate curriculum—and out of the minds of many young people, who, as the new academic establishment, so marginalized themselves that they are no longer within shouting distance of the action.
—John Brockman

FQ.08.18: Favorite Quote for This Week

I believe that there is a quasi-religious theory of human nature prevalent among pundits and intellectuals... The theory has three parts: The Blank Slate—that we have no talent or temperaments because the mind is shaped completely by the environment (parenting, culture, and society). The second is the myth of the Noble Savage—that evil motives are not inherent in people but spring from corrupting social institutions. The third is the Ghost in the Machine—that the most important part of us is somehow independent of our biology, so that our ability to have experiences and make choices can't be explained by our physiological makeup and evolutionary history.
—Steven Pinker