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Tag Archives: complex systems
Sometimes the Best Solution Is To Leave Things As They Are
Sometimes the Best Solution Is To Leave Things As They Are We must distinguish between the oft-lauded creative destruction of what is obsolete and destruction in pursuit of fleeting fashion. I recently received an insightful email from a reader who had come across my archives of free-lance articles and essays on home and urban design. I wrote […]
Where Will The “Pending” Financial Crisis Originate?
Where Will The “Pending” Financial Crisis Originate? – Case for a pending financial collapse is well grounded warns Rickards – “Ticking time bomb” the Federal Reserve has created is set to go off… – Economist warns U.S. high-yield debt, default of “junk bonds” could cause next crisis – Systemic risk is “more dangerous than ever” […]
The Two Paths to Collapse
The Two Paths to Collapse The very structure of our systems guarantees their failure once conditions change beyond their limited ability to adjust. As a general rule, there are two paths to collapse: gradual erosion and sudden crash. The two are intertwined, of course; in most cases, the system slowly loses vigor, resources, efficiency, etc. (erosion) […]
Quantum, Jazz and Dada – 3
Quantum, Jazz and Dada – 3 Max Ernst Ubu Imperator 1923 Ilargi: This is part 3 of Alexander Aston’s view of how upheaval and collapse can lead to new insights, new bursts of creativity, in science, religion, society and the arts. Part 1 of Quantum, Jazz and Dada can be found here, part 2 is […]
Quantum, Jazz and Dada – 2
Quantum, Jazz and Dada – 2 Hannah Höch Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany 1919 Ilargi: This is part 2 of Alexander Aston’s view of how upheaval and collapse can lead to new insights, new bursts of creativity, in science, religion, society and the arts. Part […]
Connected and vulnerable: Climate change, trade wars and the networked world
Connected and vulnerable: Climate change, trade wars and the networked world The increasing connectedness of the global economic system has long been touted as the path to greater prosperity and peaceful relations among nations and their peoples. There’s just one hitch: Complex systems have more points of failure and also hidden risks that only surface […]
Quantum, Jazz and Dada – 1
Quantum, Jazz and Dada – 1 Marcel Duchamp Nude descending a staircase 1912 Ilargi: Much to my surprise, I received a mail from an old friend. Alexander Aston last wrote for the Automatic Earth in 2014. But he hasn’t been idle. Alexander is presently finishing his doctorate in archeology at Oxford, after prior degrees in […]
Why Economists Can’t Understand Complex Systems: Not Even the Nobel Prize, William Nordhaus
Why Economists Can’t Understand Complex Systems: Not Even the Nobel Prize, William Nordhaus The “base case” scenario of “The Limits to Growth” 1972 report to the Club of Rome. The strong non-linearity of the behavior of complex systems — including the global economy — is nearly impossible to understand for people trained in economics. William […]
When Long-Brewing Instability Finally Reaches Crisis
When Long-Brewing Instability Finally Reaches Crisis Keep an eye on the system’s buffers. They look fine until they suddenly collapse. The doom-and-gloomers among us who have been predicting the unraveling of an inherently unstable financial system appear to have been disproved by the reflation of yet another credit-asset bubble. But inherently unstable / imbalanced systems can […]
Population growth and food: A systems perspective
Population growth and food: A systems perspective In this age of the Anthropocene, it is necessary to look inward as well as outwards to find systemic solutions. People may or may not be “a plague on earth” as David Attenborough has stated, but we are without doubt the dominant force on this planet. Some introspection […]
The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority
The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority (Chapter from Skin in the Game) How Europe will eat Halal — Why you don’t have to smoke in the smoking section — Your food choices on the fall of the Saudi king –How to prevent a friend from working too hard –Omar Sharif ‘s conversion — How to make a market […]
Chasing the Wind
Chasing the Wind Futility with Purpose Plebeians generally ignore the tact of their economic central planners. They care more that their meatloaf is hot and their suds are cold, than about any plans being hatched in the capital city. Nonetheless, the central planners know an angry mob, with torches and pitchforks, are only a few […]
The Current Onset of Climate Tipping Points
The Current Onset of Climate Tipping Points As extreme temperatures, the rate of sea ice melt, the collapse of Greenland glaciers, the thawing of Siberian and Canadian permafrost and increased evaporation in the Arctic drive cold snow storms into Europe and North America, and as hurricanes and wild fires affect tropical and semi-tropical parts of […]
Too Good For Too Long
Shutterstock Too Good For Too Long Over-extended systems contract quickly & violently I’m writing this from my home in Sonoma County at the end of an intense week of witnessing firsthand the devastation caused by the many current fires burning in northern California. While it’s hard to focus on anything other than the moment-to-moment developments […]
Death to All Zombies!
Death to All Zombies! Wait a minute. They’re already dead. Brexit just reveals that not everybody’s brains have been eaten. A viral contagion now threatens the zombified institutions of daily life, especially the workings of politics and finance. Just as zombies exist only in the collective imagination, so do these two principal activities of society […]
