Cybernethics / Cybernéthique

In Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags, Clay Shirky clearly explains the issue of a posteriori knowledge versus a priori knowledge -- the essential theme of austrian economics and libertarian politics. However, in the end, he not only fails to conceptualize the issue, he also steps into the trap laid by relativists: he confuses reality with knowledge about reality (a clear case of insanity, as defined by general semantics), and implies that we create meaning rather than discover it.

The nuance is tiny, but as Aristotle said, the least deviation from truth will be multiplied later. Human creation of meaning entails that meaning is an arbitrary product of human will, and that any disputes arising from divergent opinions cannot be solved by reason but only by brute force. Discovery of meaning entails that meaning is objective, and that disputes can be resolved by reason and other peaceful means. Thus, what appears as a mere detail in something as fundamental as metaphysics and epistemology has dramatic consequences when you later study ethics and politics!

Of course, Clay doesn't explore the political consequences of this tiny detail in his essay. His mistake is benign, and I'm sure he himself would be prone to dampen the mistake rather than amplify it, if he were to be taken in a more political discussion. Still, by admitting such wrong premises, Clay abandons all possibility of arguing back against those people who preach Evil. If he's not doing a disservice to himself, he is doing one to his readers. He is both a victim and a disseminator of one of the fundamental memes by which Evil disarms good people.

One of the first thing that any so-called "macro-economist" does when studying a phenomenon, is to postulate a deterministic model in which there is no choice and all economic costs are thus zero. That is, whenever they introduce mathematical tools, which they do so as to pose as physics-like hard scientists, they begin by negating the very essence of economics: the notion of economic cost. They are actually based upon an epistemology that explicitly denies individuals the essence of their human nature: the ability to make relevant choices. This is true of all economists from all schools of economics, save the few libertarians from the austrian school and its direct relatives. And the crooks include the neo-classical schools (that dictates the economic orthodoxy in most rich countries), and the keynesian and marxist schools (that dictate the economic orthodoxy in France and other socialist countries). No wonder why all these schools of economics produce only lies, in the form of deceitful statistics and bogus assumptions smuggled under the veil of meaningless mathematics.

If mathematical models were to be used at all in economic science, we would need non-deterministic models, replacing (neo)classical economics with quantum economics. And then we'd find that we're not able to even imagine the Feynman diagrams of all possible interactions over which to integrate our economic functions, because the relevant interactions that will take place between agents are precisely those based upon information that others don't have, including the person trying to build the model.

PS: Oh yes, one particular crook from the top of the Establishment just called me ridiculous for rejecting the results of so many scientific studies based on empiricism. You may find more about the fraud that is empiricism in social sciences by reading e.g. Hoppe, whom you may hear in this course.

At the end of the post And Life Goes On... in your blog Baghdad Burning you write:

It's about needing someone who wants peace, prosperity, independence and above and beyond all, unity.

Can't you see the contradiction between unity and all the former things? Unity means that everyone is to do the same. This directly contradicts independence. Unity and hence no independence means that everyone will be fighting to know whose opinion will prevail upon all others. This directly contradicts peace. Unity, hence no independence and no peace means that everyone will have to fight or submit to fighters, and won't be able to do the things they know could improve the lives of those they care for. This directly contradicts prosperity.

As long as you put unity before all the former, you're actually supporting the oppression you're suffering from, be it from dictators like Saddam and Khomeini, or from demagogues like those you have in Iraq currently.

An entrepreneur is a nose. In a world of uncertainty, he makes decisions, and assumes responsibility for his decisions. Where he sees opportunities that other people don't see or don't dare act upon, he commits his resources -- that begin with his own time --, and takes a risk.

Pour justifier l'intervention de l'État, les adeptes de la magie noire s'inventent des scénarios-catastrophes du genre que se passe-t-il si les fournisseurs de tel type de service font tous faux bond et ne satisfont pas le public? Ces ratiocinations suivent un modèle standard, et on peut leur donner une réponse standard.

If economics has to have any future as a science, it will probably be as Quantum Economics: a science describing human interrelations in terms of uncertain discrete transactions, where information matters, where it has a value and a cost; where it is acquired by interaction, and used by interaction; where it is unknown until the interaction happens, and where it is uncertain when the interaction will happen and what it will be, but where it is certain that the interaction will eventually happen, leading to an inevitable according reduction of the packet wave.