Saturday, January 7, 2006

As I read more answers to the Edge question I have more thoughts. I still like the applied mathematician in that what he says is intriguing, but I have convinced myself it's not true. My favorite answer for today comes from Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, who says about his dangerous idea:

It consists in pointing out that the imperial free market wears no clothes — it does not exist in the first place, and what passes for it is dangerous to the future well being of our species.

I also wonder what is meant by "dangerous." Most people seem to be proposing a scary idea rather than a dangerous one; the winner in this category is Jeremy Bernstein who comes up with a completely new reason to lose sleep. The only person giving a dangerous idea in the I-might-lose-my-job-for-saying-this sense is Steven Pinker.

I would like Bart Kosko to be more (mathematically) precise about what he's talking about. It might be right, and it might be important, but he might just be spouting garbage.