The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect by Judea Pearl and Dana MacKenzie Judea Pearl is professor of computer science at UCLA with a long, distinguished career in software and artificial intelligence. This book is his third in a series on causality. Dana MacKenzie is a professional writer. The point of […]
A New Myth (Video 5 minutes) A New Mythology for the 21st Century Say “mythology” and we think of Greek mythology or indigenous tribal stories, but we think we follow facts and logic. Actually the 21st century is soaked in myths that we follow more than we think. When facts confuse and emotions tug, we […]
Why Economic Theories Are Screwing Us Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works – and How It Fails, by Yanis Varoufakis and Jacob Moe Yanis Varoufakis will be heard from again. He attracted global attention as the Finance Minister of Greece who tried – and failed – to negotiate Greek debt […]
The Whole Economy is Full of It Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber Although an American and by training an anthropologist, David Graeber is a professor at the London School of Economics. He’s not a stereotypical economist. He’s a rebel in the growing gang of “economists” at Evonomics, seeking a new economic system. Readers […]
The Psychology of Compression Thinking (Video 7 minutes) The Psychology of Compression Thinking The basic points of Compression Thinking have changed little over the past five years. Their internal logic and consistency seem sound. But they are not trending on social media. Shifting from advanced economic norms remains a bridge too far to perturb the […]
The Efficiency Paradox: What Big Data Can’t Do by Edward Tenner Edward Tenner, researcher of history and critic of technology, writes regularly for The Atlantic. Noted for a prior book, Why Things Bite Back, Tenner popularized the idea of unintended consequences. Examples from today’s leading edge to ancient times illustrate The Efficiency Paradox. In it, […]
Are We All Avatars in a Big Simulation? Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard, translated by Jean Glaser and Sheila Faria Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard was a French philosopher, a contributor to post-structuralism, along with the better-known Jacques Derrida. This bores anyone not deep into philosophy, so why dig into it? Because Simulacra and Simulation is […]
Truth by Doc Hall (Video 7 minutes) Is Truth Just a Better Lie? The arts of human deception have ever resided within us. On-line technology multiplies opportunities to practice them. Every morning before breakfast I trash a half-dozen or more e-mail scams. Fifty years ago no one began scamming you until you were awake. Scams […]
Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan And Tumblr To Trump And The Alt-Right by Angela Nagle Angela Nagel is an Irish social critic specializing in the subcultures of the on-line interactive world, something that this reviewer and probably most readers don’t do. Tracking the logic warping feedback loops of troll wars is time-consuming […]
Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data Hardcover by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge Schönberger is a professor at Oxford and Ramge is a technology writer who has by-lines in The Economist. This book is not their first dance with Big Data. Their objective was to unveil its possibilities to those of us not […]
Toxic Assets (Video 3 minutes) Toxic Assets by Doc Hall The basic thinking behind our system of business is piling up problems faster than we can resolve them. It is has become so toxic that neither money nor magic technology can sustain it. We have to detox human thinking and rethink what we must become. […]
Neurotheology: How Science Can Enlighten Us About Spirituality by Andrew Newberg Andrew Newberg is an MD and Professor of Emergency Medicine and Radiology, and Director of Research, Marcus Institute of Integrative Health, Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia (how does he cover all this?). Neurotheology, just out, is his newest book. The book attracted […]
Fables of the Bees (Video 5 minutes) Fables from the Bees by Doc Hall We can learn a lot from bees. Complex and intriguing, the little critters have inspired many human analogies to their habits of life. However, fables about bees may also be highly biased. Bee fables, like the bees themselves, need to be […]
An old adage is that if all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. General managers experience this as a “silo problem.” Each functional specialist has a different perspective, but few comprehensively grasp the situation, and personal experience shapes our thinking (worked for me). Not inquiring more broadly and deeply confines […]
More Than a Structural Economic Problem Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen Patrick Deneen is Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame with a record of public service before academic life. His writing references ancient religion and classical studies, roundly debated by other liberal arts academics. Politically, Deneen is an all-around offender, excoriating both […]
Lost Skills = Lost Hope by Michael Hall America in 1790 was a nation where most people were able to learn productive life skills by observation, mentorship, apprenticeship and human curiosity to seek and self-learn when rudimentary education was not available. Small communities developed as self-supporting with the skills of almost everyone involved. Most people […]
A New Normal (Video 5 Minutes) A Purpose in Common Our present economic system is not only driving nature to the brink, it appears to be driving us nuts. Instead of bending nature to keep our economy growing, we need to upend our economic thinking to regenerate nature. To do this, no top-down mandate will […]
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, by Mark Fisher The initial promise of this book was a unique critique of economics. It is that. It is not a structural, fix-the-problems proposal, but an artful expression of anguish from a guy descending into depression because of “the system.” In 2017 at age 48 he took his […]
The Conquest of Bread, by Peter Kropotkin First written in 1892, this book was probably revised for 20 years or so afterward. It baldly asserts issues yet unresolved, not only why history evolved as it did then, but how it might evolve now, in the context of environmental dangers unknown at that time. Born to […]
Wealth (Video 5 minutes) Fake Wealth Peek into Snopes, the fact-checking service, and some entries imply that a fake claim is so incoherent that its own illogic clearly refutes it. But people believe it anyway. Snopes is swamped by fake news from sites that spread outlandish tales, often unwittingly paid for by advertising. Perpetrators claim […]
Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt: The Solution of the Economic Paradox by Frederick Soddy (1933) Frederick Soddy was a noted scientist of the early 20th century who won a Nobel Prize in 1921 for developing radioisotopes. By 1933, he was well aware, with Einstein and others, of the potential in nuclear energy. But after 1921, […]
Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris Malcolm Harris is a 29-year old millennial and a good writer explaining Millennial malaise. The Millennial generation is the first to be pinched in large numbers in the bind of the American economic system. Our economy is supposed to be the greatest, […]
Deep Reflection and Omnilog (Video 6 minutes) “Omnilog” and Deep Reflection Regular readers of this page know that the Compression Institute advocates radical change toward regenerating ecology. Progress toward that is evident, but slow. To speed it up, we need a radical change in us, faster than human societies have ever changed before. Is that […]
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