What, Why & How do we Know ?
Can’t quite work out where the name “Post-Autistic Economics” comes from, but this is essentially about numbers being irrelevant in economics. Naturally I approve. [From AdBusters via Rivets]
Post Note : Of course I remember now why the word “autistic” struck a chord – Dave Snowden’s quote from earlier …
“The only humans who analyse all the data and then make a rational choice are autistic, but economists insist this is the way we all work.”
This is about the 3rd or 4th time I’ve blogged about this stuff. Here in a pretty realistic looking gadget package. Could its time have come ? [Previously]
Had an interesting conversation with a Chinese colleague, sitting on a flight from Fuzhou to Beijing the other day.
Western educated, just completed a PhD in Manchester, England, and therefore lived in UK for 4 years or so, he was commenting on cultural differences and how he liked being back in Beijing, after I had commented about how frustrating I had been finding the lack of BBC (or any Western news channels) and Google in China for a whole week. Whole range of topics in general discussion.
Part of the discussion had started around the local behaviour in business meetings – and a strong “listening” culture amongst the locals, verging on disengagement to western perception. A recognition that “translation of understanding” was a very slow process, not because of symbolic lingusitic differences, but because the thinking was quite different – We compared notes on the “quaint” english translations on consumer goods and business / retail premises, that we in the west find so amusing – that is itself quite indicative of that different world model behind the two languages.
I remarked on the enormous boom in the Chinese economy, and how so much of the outcome was going visibly into more monumental buildings and malls (and human bodies) filled with Western “fashion” brands and consumerism, and how even the smallest shacks doing local business were decked out in multicoloured flashing neon. How in fact, in some ways hard to put a finger on, it was reassuring that there was still some conservatism in authority to resist the excesses of western “freedom”. He said, western attitudes to Chinese repressions (Tiananmen Square and all that) were much more extreme than most Chinese. He remarked on a personal street mugging experience in the UK, and discovering that there really were no-go areas of intolerance to outsiders, and how the balance of rights of the victim vs those of the attacker (and criminals in general in media reporting) seemed wrong. He’d come to feel it was his own fault he’d been mugged, and he found that idea strange. He couldn’t imagine feeling that in a Chinese city, in fact he couldn’t imagine feeling similarly threatened in the first place. And there were ever greater wealth class variations in the booming economy – walking in areas in any one of several Chinese cities we had both experienced, there was a highly visible “shanty-town” economy living in bamboo and corrugated sheet dwellings plugging the gaps and sprouting from the roofs of the higher rise developments, and still a strong attraction to the urban from the rural. People scratching out livings side by side with those consuming what the malls have to offer. Conversely having scraped together enough, there was still a strong trend to return to rural roots, rather than aspire to greater urban weath.
Western rights and freedoms were OK, but in moderation he said. I showed him I was reading Nagarjuna’s “Mulamadhyamakakarika” (The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way) in an attempt to find that moderation. He smiled.
Some of the interest in reading such a work is in the translation itself – from Sanskrit directly to English and in some cases via Tibetan dialect. The range of possible phrasing involved in any given translation highlights the enormous subtlety in succesfully grasping the actual thoughts and meaning being conveyed. Quite different for those of us with a Greek / Latin heritage in our thinking.
Copy of Nick Rose’s 1998 paper from the Journal of Memetics, on some of the important misunderstandings and controversies in memetics, and distinctions between genetic and memetic mechanisms that mean the analogy is only approximate.
Aparently we all die in 2013, thanks to kingmaking by big business and a cover up of the intial outbreak. Sound familiar ? [via Robot Wisdom]
And also via Jorn, this Joyce Ulysses parody. Great fun.
Anyone wanting to hear Dawkins / Dennett / Ridley and others at the LSE in London Thursday 16th March Darwin Lecture. Has to make contact tomorrow 6th March 10 am – that’s 18:00 for me.
What does the BBC have to do to make its peace with the Chinese authorities ? Damn frustrating that I can’t link to the beeb from China (here in Shanghai) – I use the beeb for so many links to other sources, as well as their own content.
Given how open so much of China now seems, why is it the authorities still seem bent on tight control of “news” and media. You can understand their nervousness at western “excesses” and their desire to “manage” free-use of information with such a pace of change from a relatively primitive base, but it’s still hard to see, apart from cultural heritage, why the felt need to censor “bad news” from the state perspective. Here’s hoping it’s just a matter of pace and time.
Another consequence – Blogger Blogs, hosted on BlogSpot don’t make it into China either – thanks to the Google censorship connection no doubt.
Further to the last post, I’ve seen some interesting things about car selling in the last three weeks.
Initially I put my motor up for sale at the wrong price – right age, but no adjustment for the very high mileage (it’s probably the highest mileage VX in captivity in fact). Anyway in three weeks of web and paper adverts I only got one private buyer make contact – and he turned out to be a “tyre-kicker” not yet beyond deciding if and whether to buy any particular kind of sportscar – with no prior research on VX ownership, and no apparent funding.
Apart from that I had a 8 or 10 so-called matching agencies mail and call (many claiming to be different companies from very similar looking phone numbers BTW) – maybe you know the kind of thing “send us your money – we have customers ready and waiting for exactly the car you’re selling”. Er yeah, right. Why would any customer using a web-based car location service, not actually use the web just to search for used (pre-owned) cars for sale anyway ?
One “selling agent” who seems genuine, and doesn’t make such ludicrous claims is Danny Neville.
The other interesting contacts were two separate instances of the overseas buyer scam – seemingly originating in African countries. The deal is someone mails you, saying they are from abroad and says they are prepared to buy your car unseen, securing it for a little more than your asking price, and they will have one of their clients in your country send you a cheque, for that value plus the cost of shipping. When you get it (and the cheque has cleared into your own account, and you are still in posession of your car) you are asked to send the shipping fee (your money) to their agent. The scam is that having a cheque “clear” into your account, is no protection if the cheque itself is a forgery apparently. Apparently the bank clearing system that clears an apparently valid cheque into your account in about 3-days, doesn’t cover you for the fact the issuing bank can still reject it up to ten days later if they detect it’s a forgery. Despite the offer being too good to be true, for any sophisticated target to fall for it, the scam is very tempting because it’s hard to spot where the catch is, if you don’t know the clearing rules.
Interestingly having spotted the scams, I offerred a trading standards agency that I should go along with them up to the point of receiving the forged cheque – but they say even with that, it is impossible to track down and prosecute the perps. Oh well.
Since putting the car up again at the right price, things have been totally different. Within a few hours of putting up the new ad (and putting the car into the garage for it’s service and MoT certification, on the same day !) I had a dozen, maybe 15 different private and a few trade buyers make contact – most claiming cash or other secure finance at or near the asking price, and asking detailed questions that showed significant prior research on the model and condition for its age – all wanting to view ASAP. Between Tuesday and Friday (Saturday I left for Shanghai) I had to juggle daylight viewing appointments with getting the car back from the garage – and many new prospects I simply had to put off – in fact after all that hassle, the first guy to make contact, got the first viewing, and agreed to buy for cash. Deal done.
(Whilst that might give the impression it sold too cheap – the behaviour I couldn’t work out was that for three weeks previously the car had been advertised at about 15% higher price and not one person had even suggested an offer near the actual selling price – weird.)
Significant mental milestone in our upcoming move to US is that I’ve sold my pride and joy VX220.
Strange, last year whilst somewhat tentatively emigrating to Perth, Western Australia, I was actually trying to export the VX with us, but it proved too many snags bureacratically. Possibly one of several reasons that move didn’t work out. Seemed pointless thinking about taking the right-hand drive VX to the US, hence the need to sell. Having sold it, I guess that means the move is really on. No going back now. (At least the VX seems to have gone to a good home, the guy was looking for the specific age and colour for track racing events, and I’ll not forget the “wow” on his face when he saw her in the flesh the first time – first viewer bought her – promised to mail me some pictures of her in action.)
Juts a holding post for three items requiring comment on BBC Radio 4 Today …
Ann Atkins – Thought for the Day, excellent – less focus on progress / good being nothing less than winning
Cameron’s – “Dynamic with Stability” plea being ridiculed by Humphrey’s as “all things to all men”.
Bush’s – Chaos vs Progress fatuous question to Iraqi’s, Yeah sure George, “Iraqi’s” would prefer Chaos.