From: Randall Randall (randall@randallsquared.com)
Date: Wed Dec 31 2003 - 21:57:36 MST
On Wednesday, December 31, 2003, at 10:07 PM, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2003 at 08:45:24PM -0500, Randall Randall wrote:
>> Anyway, I have a suspicion (not really well defined in my mind
>> yet) that the universal failure of command economies is telling us
>> something fundamental about complexity in our universe.
>
> That strikes me as pointless speculation when a much, much easier
> explanation is available: command economies are limited by the greed
> of their members, or at least of the planners.
>
> I think the *types* of failures that command economies have
> undergone illustrate this quite adequately.
Perhaps (I'm no expert), but I think it's been clearly shown that
the only way to achieve results as good as a market is to run a
market, even if in simulation. That is, there is no shortcut to
finding the solution of optimal economic activity.
It's a wild leap (but not necessarily pointless) from there to
the idea that perhaps markets and minds have this in common: you
can only produce the result by running the system.
Of course, it certainly is true that this is all wild speculation,
especially for one as ignorant as I about both minds and markets.
The only real logical connection between them is that they are
the two most complex systems that humans have available to study.
-- Randall Randall randall@randallsquared.com
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