(5,150 words)
This online EDGE edition is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html
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THE THIRD CULTURE
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ECONOMIC DIS-EQUILIBRIUM
Can You Have Your House And Spend It Too?
By George Dyson
George Dyson writes: "Readers of Nassim Taleb's The Fourth Quadrant may enjoy the following piece on fraud-resistant financial instruments of the 13th century—progenitors of a multitude of derivatives that are plaguing us today." ...
...The breakthrough was in money being duplicated: the King gathered real gold and silver into the treasury through the Exchequer, with the tally given in return attesting to the credit of the holder who could enter into trade, manufacturing, or other ventures, eventually producing real wealth with nothing more than a notched wooden stick. So what's the problem? Aren't we just passing around digital versions of the tallies we've been using for almost one thousand years? Aren't mortgages, whether prime or sub-prime, just a modern version of paying for houses with fraud-resistant sticks? ...
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#dysong
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THE REALITY CLUB
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Jaron Lanier & George Dyson
On Nassim Taleb's "The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics"
GEORGE DYSON: ...What to do now? I'd prefer less Paulson, and more Newton. In the 17th century, English coinage had become widely debased, much as our system of financial instruments has become debased today. In 1696, Sir Isaac Newton was appointed Warden of the Mint, with authority to prosecute counterfeiters, who were not only hung, but drawn and quartered. This, accompanied by a systematic recoinage, worked.
JARON LANIER: This is a superb piece and I hope it is widely read and taken to heart in Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington. All these centers of power and creativity are drowning in illusions brought about by thunderous misuses of statistics that have become implacably seductive only with the recent availability of vast, connected computer resources.
Edge.org has become the most dramatic point of contact between the critics and supporters of the fallacies Taleb elucidates. ...
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#rc
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IN THE NEWS
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BLOGGINGHEADS TV
Sean Carroll & Jenifer Ouellette
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#bh
ECONOMIC TIMES
Enlightened Pursuit Of Pleasure
By Vithal C Nadkarni
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#etimes
NEWSWEEK
When Atheists Attack
By Sam Harris
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#harris
GAWKER
What We Need More Of Is Science
Scientists Explain Why People Vote For Republicans
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#gawker
SEEKING ALPHA
Managing Risk: A Probability Model
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#alpha
DESERET NEWS — SALT LAKE CITY
Gps Units, Internet Helping Little Dogies Get Along
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#deseret
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Hardwired Conservatives
Compiled by Greg Victor
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#pittsburgh
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Technology Doesn't Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds.
By Damon Darlin
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#nytdarlin
THE ECONOMIST
User-Generated Science
Web 2.0 tools are beginning to change the shape of scientific debate
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#economist
THE GUARDIAN
Turkish Court Bans Richard Dawkins Website
By Riazat Butt
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#guardianturkey
NEWSWEEK
Is Morality Natural?
By Marc D. Hauser
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#mdh
FLORIDA TREND
Darwin, Einstein, and Five Challenges for Florida
By Juan Enriquez
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html#enriquez
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This online EDGE edition is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge258.html
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EDGE
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Copyright (c) 2008 by EDGE Foundation, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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