I guess Washington relies on the factoid that Americans have a very short attention span.
Based on the comment from Lila Rajiva, the other day, who is the co-author of one of my favorite books, "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets", and a must read (to which you can order from my book library spindle at the top) she mentioned that perhaps more writing needs to be done regarding the financiers who have swindled the world from its money. I do agree, do to the fact that most people have already forgotten what has really transpired in the past only four short months...You can find her blog on the right in the column titled "Other Blogs of Interest" to which I frequent and hers is called, Mind-Body Politic.
To recap;
Back in September, Bernanke and Paulson came to Washington and asked for a blank check with no strings attached so they could get the banks the $700B in order for the banks to begin to buy up the toxic assets...When Bush came forward and asked for the blank check-the public said,"not again with the blank check policy..." But basically the politicos gave in anyway after a few bullshit sessions to make things look good to their constituents since Nov. 4 was right around the corner...politics, right?!
Then the banks took the money and hoarded it. No one in Washington told them they actually had to DO something with OUR money we were giving to them-those who fucked it all up in the first place. Oh, some paid for some great parties and a few CEO's and such got some great golden parachutes albeit with different semantic wording in order to comply...but they still got their-I mean, OUR money...
Then the banks kept hoarding the money. They continue to blame it on the consumer confidence. Is this CON or CONfidence... Businesses failed, people went broke, people lost their homes, people lost their jobs, more people lost their homes...
Obama got elected and people began to see a new light to the world. People forgot about the shit...The banks kept hoarding the money...
But more businesses failed, more people went broke, more people lost their homes, more people lost their jobs, then more people lost their homes...
Well, Bernanke stated today, in a speech in London, that he thought that the banks should be given the rest of the $350B that Obama is asking for so that the banks could buy up the toxic assets.
I'm sorry, did I hear that again? I mean, did you stutter? I mean, do you mean it this time?
And I guess our Democratic Congress and Senate decided to get a set of balls when there is an incoming Democratic President. Where were the concerns and checks and balances for the Bush $350B(actually substantially more...)
I asked for the Democrats to get a set of balls, but perhaps they needed to have a damn backbone when we had the Bush criminals running the show...
Once again, you can't make this shit up!
Bernanke originally came in stating that our old friend Greenspan had failed at his job. By no oversight or foresight he seemed oblivious to the lending rates and bubble that was being created. Bernanke stated that Greenspan should have never brought down the rates as low as he did. Now, Bernanke has brought the rates to the lowest they have been since...I'm an American-I can't remember, oh that's a good thing for Bernanke...but I'll find out online...
Don't these people know that everything is recorded and secured for the rest of time through the internet, cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more...?
Perhaps they don't care because they know that America has a very short attention span.
What was I saying again?...
Oh, yeah, I was talking about this guy who "made off" with all of our money...his name was Madoff! Anyway...
And we wonder where the CON is in consumer confidence...
This, the 237th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Showing posts with label Mobs Messiahs and Markets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobs Messiahs and Markets. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Cogito, ergo sum...
Descartes, Aristotle, Archimedes, King Solomon, Napoleon Hill, Obama, Oprah...
The Law of Attraction swept through the nation a year or two ago with the release of the book with that same title, as well as, through the hugely successful book and video, "The Secret", that was discussed quite a bit of "Oprah". All of this stems from the long running personal bible to many, the Napoleon Hill book "Think and Grow Rich" or the old testament biblical stories of King Solomon.
It seems that the rules do exist and are exemplified quite strongly today. Or are they? It is discussed throughout the self help world with guru's like Anthony Robbins and others to envision your successes. Whatever that may mean to someone whether it be in love, finance, personal health or anything in life. If you can see it, you can achieve it, is a common workshop mantra.
It is also discussed in philosophy classes throughout the world that, as Descartes wrote, "Cogito, ergo sum" or "I think therefore I am", that not only are we the creators of our existence do to that theory, but by thinking of your life and how you want things to produce themselves, it is said that you create your own life. Aristotle stated, "But if life itself is good and pleasant and if one who sees is conscious that he sees, one who hears that he hears, one who walks that he walks and similarly for all the other human activities there is a faculty that is conscious of their exercise, so that whenever we perceive, we are conscious that we perceive, and whenever we think, we are conscious that we think, and to be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious that we exist... (Nicomachean Ethics)
There are three important notes to keep in mind here. First, Descarte only claims the certainty of his own existence from the first-person point of view — he has not proved the existence of other minds at this point. This is something that has to be thought through by each of us for ourselves, as we follow the course of the meditations. Second, he is not saying that his existence is necessary; he is saying that if he's thinking, then necessarily he exists. Third, this proposition "I am, I exist" is held true not based on a deduction nor on empirical induction, but on the clarity and self-evidence of the proposition.
But, as in Isaac Asimov's principles of robotics, The Three Laws, and how they are broken in "I, Robot", was the basis of the hit movie with Will Smith. Constantly, the robot malfunctions as a result of "thinking" about itself, its behavior, and loopholes in the Three Laws of Robotics from this quote.
Although, Descarte's theories came from the first person perspective, we also know through emergence theory and mob mentality as a collective, that we exist albeit not in a vacuum. We exist in an ever shrinking global community of beings. The global energetic is a key factor to helping us create the world we wish to live in. As the global leaders, the press, one's own community and familial environment show us that, as Roosevelt stated so clearly, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
We have been running or shall I say, the world has been following an administration that bred fear throughout the world to which they created a global stream of people who manifested that fear and confusion. We are in the midst of changing this energy and turning things around. As we went from positiveness to eight years of darkness and turmoil instantly, we can turn things around just as quickly and powerfully with the right global attitudes and consciousness.
Whether you believe in these theories or not, it works. This seems to be true. When people began to believe there was no way out for the economy, since that was the only topics of the water cooler discussions, the global press and the blogoshpere, the economy had no other means but to fail. This can change!
Well, can we see ourselves getting out of this global catastrophe? Can we end the occupation of Iraq? Can we put positive back into our lives? We must! Obama has shown us all that thinking positive and acting with purpose can bring one the results they are looking for. He gave us all the example that these books tout so clearly. We must begin to do as Obama has done to set the example and only think of the positive. There are solutions to any problem and we must think clearly and act with decisiveness as to our desired outcomes to reach a positive result.
In conclusion, and in the words of our modern metaphysical President elect, who said, "Yes We Can."
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
The Law of Attraction swept through the nation a year or two ago with the release of the book with that same title, as well as, through the hugely successful book and video, "The Secret", that was discussed quite a bit of "Oprah". All of this stems from the long running personal bible to many, the Napoleon Hill book "Think and Grow Rich" or the old testament biblical stories of King Solomon.
It seems that the rules do exist and are exemplified quite strongly today. Or are they? It is discussed throughout the self help world with guru's like Anthony Robbins and others to envision your successes. Whatever that may mean to someone whether it be in love, finance, personal health or anything in life. If you can see it, you can achieve it, is a common workshop mantra.
It is also discussed in philosophy classes throughout the world that, as Descartes wrote, "Cogito, ergo sum" or "I think therefore I am", that not only are we the creators of our existence do to that theory, but by thinking of your life and how you want things to produce themselves, it is said that you create your own life. Aristotle stated, "But if life itself is good and pleasant and if one who sees is conscious that he sees, one who hears that he hears, one who walks that he walks and similarly for all the other human activities there is a faculty that is conscious of their exercise, so that whenever we perceive, we are conscious that we perceive, and whenever we think, we are conscious that we think, and to be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious that we exist... (Nicomachean Ethics)
There are three important notes to keep in mind here. First, Descarte only claims the certainty of his own existence from the first-person point of view — he has not proved the existence of other minds at this point. This is something that has to be thought through by each of us for ourselves, as we follow the course of the meditations. Second, he is not saying that his existence is necessary; he is saying that if he's thinking, then necessarily he exists. Third, this proposition "I am, I exist" is held true not based on a deduction nor on empirical induction, but on the clarity and self-evidence of the proposition.
But, as in Isaac Asimov's principles of robotics, The Three Laws, and how they are broken in "I, Robot", was the basis of the hit movie with Will Smith. Constantly, the robot malfunctions as a result of "thinking" about itself, its behavior, and loopholes in the Three Laws of Robotics from this quote.
Although, Descarte's theories came from the first person perspective, we also know through emergence theory and mob mentality as a collective, that we exist albeit not in a vacuum. We exist in an ever shrinking global community of beings. The global energetic is a key factor to helping us create the world we wish to live in. As the global leaders, the press, one's own community and familial environment show us that, as Roosevelt stated so clearly, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
We have been running or shall I say, the world has been following an administration that bred fear throughout the world to which they created a global stream of people who manifested that fear and confusion. We are in the midst of changing this energy and turning things around. As we went from positiveness to eight years of darkness and turmoil instantly, we can turn things around just as quickly and powerfully with the right global attitudes and consciousness.
Whether you believe in these theories or not, it works. This seems to be true. When people began to believe there was no way out for the economy, since that was the only topics of the water cooler discussions, the global press and the blogoshpere, the economy had no other means but to fail. This can change!
Well, can we see ourselves getting out of this global catastrophe? Can we end the occupation of Iraq? Can we put positive back into our lives? We must! Obama has shown us all that thinking positive and acting with purpose can bring one the results they are looking for. He gave us all the example that these books tout so clearly. We must begin to do as Obama has done to set the example and only think of the positive. There are solutions to any problem and we must think clearly and act with decisiveness as to our desired outcomes to reach a positive result.
In conclusion, and in the words of our modern metaphysical President elect, who said, "Yes We Can."
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Ponzi to beat all Ponzi schemes
I was listening to Jim Lehrer yesterday of his interview with Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson. This discussion brings to mind a previous article I had penned back in June of this year.
I talked of our founding fathers and their declaration that "they hold these truths to be self evident" and the juxtaposition of that phrase with today's wiki-society of truth by proxy. Now, it seems, that if you can get enough people to believe the shit that spews out of your mouth then it becomes truth. As I said in the article, which you can find through the link above, Ayn Rand, the author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, believed that truth exists independently of the minds and opinions of people. That there was an underlying universal self evident truth that existed beyond the scope of society and its collective manipulations that can cloud the value of universal truth.
Through the interview on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer, yesterday, it shows clearly that the current administration still believes in the mob mentality or the control of and manipulation of the lemming minds of America. It is self evident that they maintain their belief that our society holds a truth by proxy. That has been their public relations platform to create and get away with their abuse of power and how they created a dictatorship type of Presidency under everyone's nose without hesitation.
Well, as I stated a few days ago, "There you go again." I don't understand why I feel it is amazing that they attempt to get away with this type of behavior when it works for them every time. We are allowing these fraudulent statements to carry on and their embezzlement of American tax dollars. This money is all of our future earnings being thrown to the elite. That governmental distribution of funds or the great social experiment. We used to call it the great Democratic Experiment. The recipients of all of this social distribution of tax dollars to the current tune of $270 Billion have gone solely to the elite and corporations, to which Paulson and Bush belong to, or have their hands deep into the till, and they are orchestrating the distribution of funds without means of oversight whatsoever. The incestuous means of staffing the TARP committee is simply Paulson making sure his previous business cohorts are still in and part of this ponzi scheme to which they are orchestrating.
Although, I was driving during a lot of this interview, if I were to have closed my eyes I could have switched Paulson out for Palin and we would have heard the same type of rhetoric and catch phrase lines that they calculatingly put into the ears of society. The repetition of phrases. The nonchalance of the gravity of destruction to which Paulson will sit and overview, for the American people, but of course without much, if any personal repercussions.
I wish to include the entire interview in print, but it is long so I will leave you with a link that you can directly go to and read. Or I am including a link here to on a streaming video that you can watch the interview. I feel that this is such an exemplary means of proof to the theories laid out in the "Mobs, Messiah's, and Markets" book I keep touting in this blog. I will also leave a link for you that if you wish to simply listen while you blog as you can hear the streaming download as well.
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
I talked of our founding fathers and their declaration that "they hold these truths to be self evident" and the juxtaposition of that phrase with today's wiki-society of truth by proxy. Now, it seems, that if you can get enough people to believe the shit that spews out of your mouth then it becomes truth. As I said in the article, which you can find through the link above, Ayn Rand, the author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, believed that truth exists independently of the minds and opinions of people. That there was an underlying universal self evident truth that existed beyond the scope of society and its collective manipulations that can cloud the value of universal truth.
Through the interview on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer, yesterday, it shows clearly that the current administration still believes in the mob mentality or the control of and manipulation of the lemming minds of America. It is self evident that they maintain their belief that our society holds a truth by proxy. That has been their public relations platform to create and get away with their abuse of power and how they created a dictatorship type of Presidency under everyone's nose without hesitation.
Well, as I stated a few days ago, "There you go again." I don't understand why I feel it is amazing that they attempt to get away with this type of behavior when it works for them every time. We are allowing these fraudulent statements to carry on and their embezzlement of American tax dollars. This money is all of our future earnings being thrown to the elite. That governmental distribution of funds or the great social experiment. We used to call it the great Democratic Experiment. The recipients of all of this social distribution of tax dollars to the current tune of $270 Billion have gone solely to the elite and corporations, to which Paulson and Bush belong to, or have their hands deep into the till, and they are orchestrating the distribution of funds without means of oversight whatsoever. The incestuous means of staffing the TARP committee is simply Paulson making sure his previous business cohorts are still in and part of this ponzi scheme to which they are orchestrating.
Although, I was driving during a lot of this interview, if I were to have closed my eyes I could have switched Paulson out for Palin and we would have heard the same type of rhetoric and catch phrase lines that they calculatingly put into the ears of society. The repetition of phrases. The nonchalance of the gravity of destruction to which Paulson will sit and overview, for the American people, but of course without much, if any personal repercussions.
I wish to include the entire interview in print, but it is long so I will leave you with a link that you can directly go to and read. Or I am including a link here to on a streaming video that you can watch the interview. I feel that this is such an exemplary means of proof to the theories laid out in the "Mobs, Messiah's, and Markets" book I keep touting in this blog. I will also leave a link for you that if you wish to simply listen while you blog as you can hear the streaming download as well.
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Is Religion Ridiculous?
You must note that I did not title this "Is God Ridiculous". That is where your mind may have gone to first. That would be the ego getting in the way of this discussion. I thought that I would use the following trailer, for Bill Maher's new movie "Religulous", to augment my discussion a few days back entitled "I'm conCERNed about Religious Dogma". I simply wish to elaborate the idea a bit through humor as the topic can be very touchy for so many people throughout the world.
Again, as we discussed in yesterdays entry "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, on my..., of the great book and recent winner of the GetAbstract Book Award, by Bill Bonner and Lila Rajiva, I used the famed F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
This is what we need in order to have a reasonable discussion on religion. As religion still holds such a powerful force in how politicians throughout the world act and react with one another, either together in conversation or through each owns policy decisions, it is time that we all must take a closer look at ourselves and our part in how we react to religion. Even though many may not know much about, not only other religions of the world, but even the finer details of our own structured dogmatic beliefs we follow, we must separate our ego from those discussions to lead us to a more enlightened and educated place.
Since it is such a personal issue for billions of people throughout the world, who can have very radical differences in the dynamics of their individual beliefs on the same topic, it must go without saying that we need to be able to transcend a singular mindset in order to create the necessary discourse over such a delicate topic to reach educated decisions based on doctrines of faith, to which there is no defined validated truth to substantiate any dogmatic belief structure, of any religious sect throughout the world.
For those that may not be familiar with Bill Maher, he is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, actor, and author. He hosted the late-night television talk show "Politically Incorrect" on Comedy Central and ABC, and is currently the host of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. He is one of the current leading political and social observational satirists. As for as his religious beliefs, he is not an atheist. Bill was raised in his Irish American father's Catholic religion, and did not find out that his mother was Jewish until his teenage years; his family stopped attending church when he was thirteen, because of his father's disagreement with the Pope's position on birth control.
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(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Again, as we discussed in yesterdays entry "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, on my..., of the great book and recent winner of the GetAbstract Book Award, by Bill Bonner and Lila Rajiva, I used the famed F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
This is what we need in order to have a reasonable discussion on religion. As religion still holds such a powerful force in how politicians throughout the world act and react with one another, either together in conversation or through each owns policy decisions, it is time that we all must take a closer look at ourselves and our part in how we react to religion. Even though many may not know much about, not only other religions of the world, but even the finer details of our own structured dogmatic beliefs we follow, we must separate our ego from those discussions to lead us to a more enlightened and educated place.
Since it is such a personal issue for billions of people throughout the world, who can have very radical differences in the dynamics of their individual beliefs on the same topic, it must go without saying that we need to be able to transcend a singular mindset in order to create the necessary discourse over such a delicate topic to reach educated decisions based on doctrines of faith, to which there is no defined validated truth to substantiate any dogmatic belief structure, of any religious sect throughout the world.
For those that may not be familiar with Bill Maher, he is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, actor, and author. He hosted the late-night television talk show "Politically Incorrect" on Comedy Central and ABC, and is currently the host of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. He is one of the current leading political and social observational satirists. As for as his religious beliefs, he is not an atheist. Bill was raised in his Irish American father's Catholic religion, and did not find out that his mother was Jewish until his teenage years; his family stopped attending church when he was thirteen, because of his father's disagreement with the Pope's position on birth control.
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(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Monday, October 6, 2008
It's time to discuss, Bionomics!
I have mentioned the book, "Bionomics; Economy as Business Ecosystem" by Rothschild, being one of my favorite books, in this blog numerous times since I have begun writing. I wish to thank my friend Greg Welch for the recommendation. I have since read the book he lent me more than a few times and it is falling apart, so I owe him a new copy...
Bionomics is the comprehensive study of an organism and its relation to its environment. (Greek: bio = life; nomos = law)
Capitalism, like life, was not planned. It just happened. All factors for its survival were correctly in their place and it began to gestate within the human psyche and early man's society. Through early trade practices and the emergence and growth of more complex human societal structures the evolution of capitalism has grown spontaneously. Just as in the way the human society organizes itself to survive in a world of limited resources, capitalism flourishes when it is not suppressed, as it is also a natural occurring phenomenon.
We have seen this process at work directly through this meltdown of our national and in many respects, global financial systems due to the freedom that our administration allowed for capitalism to flourish. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
This is to say that in a free market economy without regulations the distribution of goods and financial expenditures for those goods are determined by the actions of private citizens and corporation working in direct tandem with eachother's financial needs and their own personal or corporate desires for success and survival. In another way to say it would be that capitalism is the evolutionary process of all organisms (businesses, corporations, markets, economies) that seek to adapt and preserve themselves and their own individual environments and their "genetic" success characteristics.
The inheritance of the success "genes" of corporations, as an example, help to maintain the stability of the markets as the corporations continually announce these "genes", and their successful mutations, to the public at large through earnings announcements and stock valuations. This also goes to say, that each local and national economy distribute this same success information to the public at large for them to interrelate within their own environment.
As the economy is continually and dynamically driven into new states by technological change, the rules and lessons of Bionomics are more pertinent than ever. They suggest great caution regarding government planning and control of a naturally growing and self-regulating market economy. Government's role is to protect the property and the rights of individuals and corporations, that allow new economic orders to flourish.
Rothschild notes that the roots of his study of economics theory came from Darwin's natural selection...and it makes intuitive sense that economics would have much more to do with biology than math and statistics. Capitalism is not just another economic system... it is a natural emergent quality of nature itself.
Emergence theory is a concept that has been used in theory since at least Aristotle. It is the study of behavior or emergent property which can appear when a number of simple entities (corporations, businesses, individuals, economies) operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. If emergence happens over disparate size scales, then the reason is there is often a form of top-down feedback in systems with emergent properties. This process may occur in either the observed or observing system, and can commonly be identified by their patterns of accumulating change, most generally called 'growth'. This is more commonly referred to as "Reaganomics" in political discussions today. This behavior occurs because of highly intricate relations across a myriad of scales and feedback to individual results of these behaviors. This inter-connectivity can be predictable or highly unpredictable thus allowing to represent a new level of the system's evolution.
As much as I may be a conspiracy theorist, the complex behaviors or properties are not a property of any single such entity. We are unable to deduce or predict the behavior of the system, that being corporations, national or global economies, from a single or lower level entities, or the citizens or small businesses. Liken this theory to the fact that no physical property of an individual molecule of air would lead one to think that a large collection of them will transmit sound.
This has been studied by watching flocks of birds or a shoal of fish. There is no leader to this systemic movement. The birds or fish move and act and react as one entity, although there is no direct leader. The movements and reactions, or emergent behavior is hard to predict due to the number of interactions between components of a system which increases relating with the number of components, whereby potentially allowing for many new and subtle types of different behavior patterns to emerge. For example, the possible interactions between groups of molecules grows enormously with the number of molecules such that it is impossible for a computer to even count the number of arrangements for a system as small as 20 molecules.
On the other hand, merely having a large number of interactions is not enough by itself to guarantee emergent behavior. Many of the interactions may be negligible or irrelevant, or may cancel each other out. In some cases, a large number of interactions can in fact work against the emergence of new and interesting behaviors by creating a lot of "noise" to drown out any emerging "signal". The emergent behavior may need to be temporarily isolated from other interactions before it reaches enough critical mass to be self-supporting. So, it is not just the sheer number of connections between components which encourages emergence, but it is also how these connections are organized.
A hierarchical organization is one example that can generate emergent behavior (a bureaucracy, or government may behave in a way quite different from that of the individual humans in that bureaucracy, or government entity). Emergent behavior can also arise from more decentralized organizational structures, such as a marketplace.
We have now seen this through the systemic breakdown of the banking industry. In some cases, the system has to reach a combined threshold of diversity, organization, and connectivity before emergent behavior appears. As we have seen the trickle down effects of this connectivity on a global scale. Unintended, or perhaps intended (as I am a conspiracy theorist) consequences and side effects are closely related to emergent properties. That said, although the actual behavior of the intended consequences would not be guaranteed to the individual(s) attempting to manipulate the emergent properties, due to the unpredictability of such a large (global) system, the continued actions and reactions can help justify and allow for the systemic changes to occur on their own. This, over time, allows the individual(s) to change their processes in order to comply with the new evolutions of thought and actions.
Luc Steels is a Belgian scientist, and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Vrije University Brussel writes: "A component has a particular functionality but this is not recognizable as a subfunction of the global functionality. Instead a component implements a behaviour whose side effect contributes to the global functionality [...] Each behaviour has a side effect and the sum of the side effects gives the desired functionality" (Steels 1990). If I may paraphrase this that, the global or macroscopic functionality of a system with "emergent functionality" is the sum of all "side effects", of all emergent properties and functionalities.
With the most recent global breakdown of our banking systems we realize that the side effects of the banking system directly relate to the effects of the insurance system, which directly relate to the reinsurance systems. These directly relate to the borrowing capabilities of local banking systems and their interdependence on the international banking systems. This directly relates to the borrowing capabilities of the small business and microorganisms, or individual citizens. The success of the macro systems, or host entities, rely more on their own successes to the demise of the individual entities success. Thus, the hailed "trickle down" theory, or "Reaganomics" is not a determined successful business model.
The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. Systems with emergent properties or emergent structures may appear to defy entropic principles and the second law of thermodynamics, because they form and increase order despite the lack of command and central control. This is possible because open systems can extract information and order out of the environment.
Emergence helps to explain why the fallacy of division is a fallacy. According to an emergent perspective, intelligence emerges from the connections between neurons, and from this perspective it is not necessary to propose a "soul" to account for the fact that brains can be intelligent, even though the individual neurons of which they are made are not. But, this is a discussion for another day!
I will be discussing, in depth, another of my favorite books "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets" by Bonner and Rajiva soon. I hope you join me for that one! It can be considered part two of this discussion as the emergence theory and economics is explored more thoroughly.
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Bionomics is the comprehensive study of an organism and its relation to its environment. (Greek: bio = life; nomos = law)
Capitalism, like life, was not planned. It just happened. All factors for its survival were correctly in their place and it began to gestate within the human psyche and early man's society. Through early trade practices and the emergence and growth of more complex human societal structures the evolution of capitalism has grown spontaneously. Just as in the way the human society organizes itself to survive in a world of limited resources, capitalism flourishes when it is not suppressed, as it is also a natural occurring phenomenon.
We have seen this process at work directly through this meltdown of our national and in many respects, global financial systems due to the freedom that our administration allowed for capitalism to flourish. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
This is to say that in a free market economy without regulations the distribution of goods and financial expenditures for those goods are determined by the actions of private citizens and corporation working in direct tandem with eachother's financial needs and their own personal or corporate desires for success and survival. In another way to say it would be that capitalism is the evolutionary process of all organisms (businesses, corporations, markets, economies) that seek to adapt and preserve themselves and their own individual environments and their "genetic" success characteristics.
The inheritance of the success "genes" of corporations, as an example, help to maintain the stability of the markets as the corporations continually announce these "genes", and their successful mutations, to the public at large through earnings announcements and stock valuations. This also goes to say, that each local and national economy distribute this same success information to the public at large for them to interrelate within their own environment.
As the economy is continually and dynamically driven into new states by technological change, the rules and lessons of Bionomics are more pertinent than ever. They suggest great caution regarding government planning and control of a naturally growing and self-regulating market economy. Government's role is to protect the property and the rights of individuals and corporations, that allow new economic orders to flourish.
Rothschild notes that the roots of his study of economics theory came from Darwin's natural selection...and it makes intuitive sense that economics would have much more to do with biology than math and statistics. Capitalism is not just another economic system... it is a natural emergent quality of nature itself.
Emergence theory is a concept that has been used in theory since at least Aristotle. It is the study of behavior or emergent property which can appear when a number of simple entities (corporations, businesses, individuals, economies) operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. If emergence happens over disparate size scales, then the reason is there is often a form of top-down feedback in systems with emergent properties. This process may occur in either the observed or observing system, and can commonly be identified by their patterns of accumulating change, most generally called 'growth'. This is more commonly referred to as "Reaganomics" in political discussions today. This behavior occurs because of highly intricate relations across a myriad of scales and feedback to individual results of these behaviors. This inter-connectivity can be predictable or highly unpredictable thus allowing to represent a new level of the system's evolution.
As much as I may be a conspiracy theorist, the complex behaviors or properties are not a property of any single such entity. We are unable to deduce or predict the behavior of the system, that being corporations, national or global economies, from a single or lower level entities, or the citizens or small businesses. Liken this theory to the fact that no physical property of an individual molecule of air would lead one to think that a large collection of them will transmit sound.
This has been studied by watching flocks of birds or a shoal of fish. There is no leader to this systemic movement. The birds or fish move and act and react as one entity, although there is no direct leader. The movements and reactions, or emergent behavior is hard to predict due to the number of interactions between components of a system which increases relating with the number of components, whereby potentially allowing for many new and subtle types of different behavior patterns to emerge. For example, the possible interactions between groups of molecules grows enormously with the number of molecules such that it is impossible for a computer to even count the number of arrangements for a system as small as 20 molecules.
On the other hand, merely having a large number of interactions is not enough by itself to guarantee emergent behavior. Many of the interactions may be negligible or irrelevant, or may cancel each other out. In some cases, a large number of interactions can in fact work against the emergence of new and interesting behaviors by creating a lot of "noise" to drown out any emerging "signal". The emergent behavior may need to be temporarily isolated from other interactions before it reaches enough critical mass to be self-supporting. So, it is not just the sheer number of connections between components which encourages emergence, but it is also how these connections are organized.
A hierarchical organization is one example that can generate emergent behavior (a bureaucracy, or government may behave in a way quite different from that of the individual humans in that bureaucracy, or government entity). Emergent behavior can also arise from more decentralized organizational structures, such as a marketplace.
We have now seen this through the systemic breakdown of the banking industry. In some cases, the system has to reach a combined threshold of diversity, organization, and connectivity before emergent behavior appears. As we have seen the trickle down effects of this connectivity on a global scale. Unintended, or perhaps intended (as I am a conspiracy theorist) consequences and side effects are closely related to emergent properties. That said, although the actual behavior of the intended consequences would not be guaranteed to the individual(s) attempting to manipulate the emergent properties, due to the unpredictability of such a large (global) system, the continued actions and reactions can help justify and allow for the systemic changes to occur on their own. This, over time, allows the individual(s) to change their processes in order to comply with the new evolutions of thought and actions.
Luc Steels is a Belgian scientist, and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Vrije University Brussel writes: "A component has a particular functionality but this is not recognizable as a subfunction of the global functionality. Instead a component implements a behaviour whose side effect contributes to the global functionality [...] Each behaviour has a side effect and the sum of the side effects gives the desired functionality" (Steels 1990). If I may paraphrase this that, the global or macroscopic functionality of a system with "emergent functionality" is the sum of all "side effects", of all emergent properties and functionalities.
With the most recent global breakdown of our banking systems we realize that the side effects of the banking system directly relate to the effects of the insurance system, which directly relate to the reinsurance systems. These directly relate to the borrowing capabilities of local banking systems and their interdependence on the international banking systems. This directly relates to the borrowing capabilities of the small business and microorganisms, or individual citizens. The success of the macro systems, or host entities, rely more on their own successes to the demise of the individual entities success. Thus, the hailed "trickle down" theory, or "Reaganomics" is not a determined successful business model.
The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. Systems with emergent properties or emergent structures may appear to defy entropic principles and the second law of thermodynamics, because they form and increase order despite the lack of command and central control. This is possible because open systems can extract information and order out of the environment.
Emergence helps to explain why the fallacy of division is a fallacy. According to an emergent perspective, intelligence emerges from the connections between neurons, and from this perspective it is not necessary to propose a "soul" to account for the fact that brains can be intelligent, even though the individual neurons of which they are made are not. But, this is a discussion for another day!
I will be discussing, in depth, another of my favorite books "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets" by Bonner and Rajiva soon. I hope you join me for that one! It can be considered part two of this discussion as the emergence theory and economics is explored more thoroughly.
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
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