Here is a speech and animation that I liked a lot (and this is the link for the email subscribers – The Power of Networks, or you can check it out directly on rollingalpha.com).
The basic summary being:
- Once, we liked to think of things as linear (direct cause and effect – that sort of thing).
- Then, we realised that there was interconnection, and it all looked highly chaotic.
- Now, we’re learning to see the mind/body/world/Life/the Universe as giant networks of organised complexity.
It’s almost like science is becoming more spiritual: moving from linear moralism, to the agnostic I’m-too-limited-and-the-Universe-is-too-unlimited-for-me-to-say-anything-really, and now reaching a kind of mystical state where Self-Understanding reflects Universal Understanding and vice versa, with all the fun multiplier effects that implies.
From an economic standpoint, I guess this represents the move away from Market Intervention (linear cause and effect) and Neoliberalism (where everything is too chaotic for us to understand – so rather just let everything do what it must to stay in balance, and stay out of it with all your regulation, Big Government), and towards a pluralistic Schrödinger-esque view of Economies as places where you can both intervene and not intervene and that really depends on your perspective.
That might seem a bit heavy for a Monday morning. But there are pictures.
Also, this:
Rolling Alpha posts opinions on finance, economics, and the corporate life in general. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha.
