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Apart from the financial system complexity, I actually struggle to see how the systems mentioned are too complex to understand. They’re big, yes, and full of de
by hirenj 6y ago
Apart from the financial system complexity, I actually struggle to see how the systems mentioned are too complex to understand. They’re big, yes, and full of detail - but incomprehensible doesn’t sound right.
However, I’m sure that this is true in certain cases, and I would appreciate reading about specific examples of complexity that are well hidden, so the exact nature of the complexity can be described. What complexity do people systematically underestimate? What defies all understanding?
Throwing our hands up and saying it all is incomprehensible is akin to ceding control over everything to the few that have understood everything.
- wintorez 6y agoMaybe by “Any of Us”, the author meant “Me”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- jxramos 6y agoOr was rediscovering the "invisible hand".
- pixl97 6y agoEh, nobody understands everything simply because you need to sleep around 8 hours a day, and give at least a few other hours for other functions. There are limitless rabbit holes you can fall into and never gain mastery in the subject. Like describe the supply chain for iron, now do it for gasoline, now do it for silicon, copper, gold, crops, etc. No matter what your think, there isn't some person that understands all of this. They farm off the technicalities to people that are dedicated to it.
- hirenj 6y agoDo we need one person to understand everything? I don’t believe so, but there could be limits to the efficiency of collaborative understanding and action on complex systems, such that we have to have one person understanding multiple systems. To play devils advocate, I see this in science all the time where the great insights come from people with deep knowledge in multiple areas.
- mikem170 6y agoOk, how about governing ourselves? Are we doing a good job? The U.S. sits atop the world economy, and politically we've been divided over issues like gay marriage and walling off Mexicans. Nobody trusts congress, yet the federal government grows ever more powerful. Corporations have manipulated us into a culture focused on consumerism and greed, half the country loathes the president, health care is a god awful mess, Americans pretty much have no clue imperialistic their country is, we've invented the internet and are along for a ride, at its mercy, etc. And given the unprecedented complex interrelatedness of all this we can make really big mistakes really quickly. So much of this stuff is effectively already out of control. We are reduced so often to reacting, putting out fires, and more concerned about who to blame. Theoretically we could address any of these problems through reasoned action, but human nature being what it is we don't even seem to agree on what the problems are.