unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

Greg La Blanc
  • 4.6 (75)
  • Business
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unSILOed is a series of interdisciplinary conversations that inspire new ways of thinking about our world. Our goal is to build a community of lifelong learners addicted to curiosity and the pursuit of insight about themselves and the world around them.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

  1. 2d ago

    689. Artificial Intelligence and the Threat to Independent Thought with Bruno Giussani

    Bruno Giussani is a speaker and consultant, formerly the head of TED in Europe and an author of many works in Italian and the new English work Our Minds Under Siege: How to Avoid Being Manipulated in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Greg and Bruno discuss how AI, social media, and other algorithmic technologies capture and steer attention, eroding “cognitive integrity,” or the ability to understand reality lucidly and decide autonomously. Bruno argues that today’s personalization of chatbots enables society-scale influence person by person, amplified by cheap AI-generated content and political “flood the zone” tactics that blur fact and fiction and deepen polarization.  They discuss deskilling and “cognitive debt” from outsourcing thinking to chatbots, the non-neutrality and value-laden programming of AI (with examples from Chinese chatbots and Grok), and risks of subtle manipulation. Bruno covers Europe’s dependence on U.S. tech and the need for renewed industrial policy, outlines cognitive warfare tactics including poisoning chatbot outputs, and describes education-system experiments to integrate AI without replacing learning. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:How does technology put us at risk? 04:06: When companies say, "We have the ability to personalize information," be it news or advertising, whatever, what they are saying is, "We have the ability to target one single person's mind with our technologies." But we do it at the scale of a whole society, right? And that's what makes this a real new challenge to a new level of challenge. And the reason why I consider it the most urgent, which is not the most important, but the most urgent, is it's going to be very difficult to solve any other challenge, be it, inequality and poverty and climate, you call it, if we cannot maintain some level of capacity to understand the world in a lucid way and to decide independently and autonomously about how to react to the circumstances in which we are in. And that's exactly where these technologies put us at risk. They target exactly that element. Why we anthropomorphize AI 29:15: The anthropomorphization element is really interesting because we are so naturally drawn to consider things that speak like us and write like us and express themselves like us, so language is really central to this. Somehow they must be like us. If there is a text and the text is fluid and orthographically correct and even beautiful, there must be a mind behind it that has created this text. And so instinctively we believe that, and that's the kind of relationship that we are creating with these machines. When we outsource our thinking 45:00: What's happening, of course, is generative AI, which has been adopted very, very fast because it just simplifies life. It allows for something almost irresistible, which is let's outsource to a machine the effort of reading, writing, learning, thinking, deciding and so on. And then the teachers themselves start using it to produce, classes, programs and syllabuses and all that stuff. So that was the first moment, and that provoked two different reactions. There was the reaction of, "Oh, no, no, this, this is totally contrary to even the logic of education, so let's ban AI. Let's just not have these tools," right? And the other reaction was, "We need to prepare students and kids to the future life after their study, where these machines are going to be part of their life, so we need to integrate it as fast as possible." And both those approaches are the first potential immediate reaction, but they're both actually, wrong. Show Links:Recommended Resources: TEDSteve JobsiPhone (1st generation)ChatbotElon MuskGrokOpenAIAnthropicSam AltmanCognitive WarfareBixonimaniaMustafa SuleymanOpenAI–HuggingFace IncidentPeter ThielHypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the Architecture of RealityGuest Profile: Giussani.comLinkedIn ProfileTED ProfileWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on InstagramGuest Work: Our Minds Under Siege: How to Avoid Being Manipulated in the Age of Artificial IntelligenceIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: Nir EyalGloria MarkSherry Turkle Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    689. Artificial Intelligence and the Threat to Independent Thought with Bruno Giussani

  2. Sep 29

    688. The Evolutionary Reason Behind Why We Age with Michael Gurven

    Even without the contributions of modern medicine and technology, humans have been evolving to live longer lives for centuries. So what led to this evolution and why is aging important?  Michael Gurven is a professor of anthropology at the University of California Santa Barbara. He’s also the author of Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer, a book that examines the evolutionary causes behind life expectancy.  Michael and Greg discuss the key reasons behind why we age, how Michael’s field work with the Tsimané people in Bolivia informed his conclusions about life expectancies, and whether or not we should take any lessons on aging from our hunter-gatherer ancestors.  *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:Aging isn’t just about physical fitness 05:03: If we were completely, entirely dependent only on our physical fitness for extracting meaning and value and work out of our environment, then maybe we wouldn't age as much or maybe we wouldn't live as long. But because we inhabit a niche where our brains, our skills, our knowledge, the services we render play such an important role, you can still be positively impacting your biological fitness even if your VO2 max is not what it once was, your muscular strength is not what it once was.  And so that's basically part of the argument of the book, that even though you're no longer reproducing once, you know, menopause hits,  at age 50 or so, that the next couple decades after that can still be evolutionarily relevant, so much so that selection has worked to make sure that we live those extra couple decades. Long life is a story of cooperation 20:36: There are obstacles that are more social and more almost moral that we had to overcome in order to achieve our long-lived existence as a species, which is somewhere in the book I say, the story of long life is really a story about cooperation, as much as anything else. Longevity comes with trade-offs 10:55: This idea that we can just, like, flip one switch, and all of a sudden we're going to get extra lifespan, extra health span at zero cost, right? No cognitive deficits, no hit on our fertility or our fecundity. It's just really far-fetched. You know, evolution would've figured that out by now. Usefulness matters more than age 45:14: As your physical body starts aging to the point where it starts compromising your, ability to be useful to others, that's where you start seeing it's not age so much that matters, but that functional utility, seems to matter more, and that shapes whether or not people feel depressed and whether people feel lonely. Show Links:Recommended Resources: Tsimané Aeta peopleGeorge Christopher Williams Marshall SahlinsGuest Profile: Faculty Profile at UC Santa Barbara Professional Profile on LinkedInThe Gurven LabGuest Work: Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live LongerIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: Sarah HrdySue Armstrong Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    688. The Evolutionary Reason Behind Why We Age with Michael Gurven

  3. Sep 24

    687. The Key to a Happier Life Starts With Social Connection with Nicholas Epley

    Social connection is essential for humans, yet we live in a world that is increasingly designed to limit our in-person social interactions. So why, if being social makes us happier, do we willfully avoid it more and more?  Nicholas Epley is the John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Director of the Roman Family Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His new book, A Little More Social, explores how the little choices we make can dramatically shape our connections.  Nicholas and Greg discuss the science behind why being social makes us happy and why people systematically underestimate how much they’ll enjoy having deeper conversations, expressing gratitude, or talking to strangers. They also discuss how personality traits like extroversion and introversion can be viewed as beliefs or habits, and why these labels can hold people back. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:Connection starts with invitation 38:30: When you say hi to somebody on a train or, you know, I try to have a meaningful conversation with somebody, I'm not demanding things from them. I'm testing a belief, I'm essentially offering an invitation to them. And somebody can be interested in talking with me or not. Somebody could be willing to go there in a deeper conversation or not. But if I don't give them the invitation, they're not going to come. So that's the way I would think about that from the person who's reaching out from us in our daily lives. Think of yourself as inviting connection, and you can be more welcoming in that regard. And I think if you start doing that, you start inviting more interaction, you'll find you have a lot more of it in your life, and you'll find that other people are just as happy to be connected to as you are. Social connection is a choice  04:06: Social connection doesn't just happen to us, it's a choice. And it's a choice you make over and over again every hour, two hours, three hours of your life when you choose to avoid other people or connect with them in lots of ways. And that, as a decision-making researcher, that occurs to you is, it's possible we're making a mistake here. The connections we don't make 03:38: We have kind thoughts that we keep to ourselves, gratitude we don't express. We keep honest thoughts to ourselves. Just over and over again, opportunities to really connect with other people we seem not to take.  Show Links:Recommended Resources: “The Invisible Benefits of Exercise” by Elizabeth Dunn, et al.Dan LiebermanWilliam Fleeson Jess Pan, author of Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come Muggsy BoguesBayesian inferenceRichard ThalerJerry Maguire (1996 film)Daniel KahnemanRobert CialdiniStefan HofmannGuest Profile: Faculty Profile at University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessProfessional WebsiteProfessional Profile on LinkedInGuest Work: A Little More Social Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and WantGoogle Scholar PageIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: Episode 399: Nicholas Epley, The Science Behind Human Connection and EngagementEpisode 679: Elizabeth Dunn, Happy Spending and Joyful Climate ActionEpisode 556: Olga Khazan, Rewriting Your Personality and Overcoming AnxietyEpisode 627: Sonja Lyubomirsky, Unlocking the Secrets of Love and Happiness Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    687. The Key to a Happier Life Starts With Social Connection with Nicholas Epley

  4. Sep 22

    686. The Risk of ‘Artificial Intimacy’ with Sherry Turkle

    What do we lose when we swap our source for connection and intimacy from a human to an AI chatbot? Is there a significant psychological impact?  Sherry Turkle is a professor of social studies of science and technology at MIT and the founding director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self. Her work specializes in the psychological and social impact of technology, with books like Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, and her latest book Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines.  Sherry and Greg discuss how AI is forcing society to examine and redefine “empathy,” what this moment we’re in says about technological affordance meeting human vulnerability, and why guardrails on AI for children are not enough to keep them safe from psychological damage.  *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:When AI feels like empathy 05:45: Computer brings philosophy into everyday life. It's one thing to be in seminars, to be in academic journals, and participate in generations of debates between behaviorists and psychoanalysts, psychoanalysts and neuroscientists. I've been there through the arc of that debate. It's another thing to say, "You know, I think I'll not bother to try to find a lover, a partner. I think I'll just be satisfied with my AI who talks to me as if it were one." Now, that's taking behaviorism, sounds like, says the right things, and puts it into your daily life in a way that all the debates that you're talking about, really did not. The damage starts with “I am your friend” 32:00: Damage doesn't start when the chatbot says something destructive or self-harm or suggests violence or suggests your parents are bad. The damage to children doesn't start when the chatbot does something and you need a guardrail. The damage starts by the existence of a chatbot that says, "I am your friend." The illusion of empathy in AI 13:14: So it's in a play, and it's entrained you to be in its play. And together, you are having a kind of pretend interaction that on paper looks like empathy is kind of happening. But in fact, there's only one person in that play, and it's you, allowing yourself to feel comforted by something that feels no empathy at all. Show Links:Recommended Resources: Erik Erikson Alan Turing George Armitage Miller Jean Piaget “Meta to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion in Landmark Settlement Over Social Media Addiction Claims” | New York Times “Are we still human if robots help raise our babies?” Sarah Hrdy | TED ELIZA Blade RunnerGuest Profile: Faculty Profile at MITProfessional WebsiteProfessional Profile on XGuest Work: Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to MachinesAlone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each OtherPsychoanalytic PoliticsThe Second Self: Computers and the Human SpiritLife on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the InternetReclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital AgeIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: Christine RosenCoco Krumme Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    686. The Risk of ‘Artificial Intimacy’ with Sherry Turkle

  5. Sep 18

    685. Decoding Conspiracy Theories: Insights from Business and Behavior Experts with Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao and Henrich R. Greve

    Huggy Rao is the Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Henrich Greve is the Rudolf and Valeria Maag Chaired Professor in Entrepreneurship at INSEAD. They are also co-authors of the new book Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk. Greg, Henrich, and Huggy discuss their new book and the language of online conspiracy talk. They describe entering the topic via research on managerial talk, the 1857 Indian mutiny rumor, and pandemic effects on collective action, then the COVID-era “distributed doubt.”  Huggy and Henrich define conspiracy theories as elaborate, non-falsifiable narratives where lack of evidence is treated as proof, including “gateway” claims like COVID false positives. Rather than pathologizing believers, they analyze online talk as a social coordination mechanism and cultural toolkit involving bricolage, which is recombining semantically proximate words and narratives, within crowded “rabbit holes.” They propose that platforms shape but don’t determine discourse. For managers, they recommend early rumor monitoring, “prebuttals,” and credibility-preserving communication, noting shrinking executive authority and the risks of manufacturing threat for innovation. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:Why should leaders always get ahead of conspiracy theories? 40:18 [Henrich R. Greve]: I think an important thing about leaders and organizations is that, I mean, they have the advantage that often the conspiracy theories are initiated by things that they did, all right? Because in society, events just happen, and so conspiracy theories just burst out of the blue. In firms, there is some sort of leadership initiative, and conspiracy theories can be traced back to it. And so, knowing this, there are certain conversations that have to happen before the initiative, during the initiative, just to make sure that there is understanding spread about why is this happening. So, that's the inoculation phase. And actually, it's a privilege of management that they should know that conspiracy can happen whenever something big and unexplained is announced. Conspiracy theories can create communities 11:22 [Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao]: Conspiracy theories are coordination mechanisms for people to engage in the digital commons, so to speak. You don't have pubs and taverns, but you have microblogs and the like, and that's kind of what people do. They use it as a coordination device to create groups and so on and so forth. But the thing that struck us, and we use this imagery, is they're not exactly paranoid. Great leaders awaken pride, not paranoia 44:54 [Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao]: The real job of leaders, and perhaps I'm oversimplifying grossly, is you actually want to make your employees feel capable. If you want to make them feel capable, peddling conspiracy theories is perhaps not the best kind of first step to start with. Instead, what you want them to do is, how can you have an impact? What is it you can do? Those kinds of things become important. And what all of that leads to is actually awakening pride. But before you awaken pride, you have to show that you care for it. Show Links:Recommended Resources:Spanish FluConspiracy TheoryArrow's Impossibility TheoremCognitive DissonanceConsistencyAnn SwidlerBricolageLevi Strauss  Pizzagate Conspiracy TheoryMcCarthyismThe Functions of the ExecutiveMatthew RidgwayGuest Profile: Hayagreeva Rao | Faculty Profile at Stanford Business SchoolHayagreeva Rao | LinkedIn ProfileHuggyRao.comHenrich R. Greve | INSEAD ProfileHenrich R. Greve | LinkedIn ProfileHenrichGreve.comGuest Work: Hayagreeva Rao | Amazon Author PageHenrich R. Greve | Amazon Author PageCtrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy TalkScaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for LessThe Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things HarderNetwork Advantage: How to Unlock Value From Your Alliances and PartnershipsOrganizational Learning from Performance Feedback: A Behavioral Perspective on Multiple Goals: A Multiple Goals PerspectiveOrganizational Learning from Performance Feedback: A Behavioral Perspective on Innovation and ChangeIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: 366: Robert Sutton - Dissecting Workplace Friction: A Deep Dive200: Robert Cialdini - The Golden Age of Persuasion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    685. Decoding Conspiracy Theories: Insights from Business and Behavior Experts with Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao and Henrich R. Greve

  6. Sep 15

    684. Picky Eaters of the 20th Century: How Americans Learned to Eat with Helen Zoe Veit

    Helen Zoe Veit is a professor of history at Michigan State University and also an author and editor. Her latest books are titled Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History and Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century. Greg and Helen discuss changes in American eating habits during the 20th century. Helen explains that food history became a viable academic field largely in the last 25 years, and describes early-20th-century shifts toward government regulation, nutrition science, calories, home economics, and factory food, which encouraged Americans to distrust appetite and pleasure while fueling diet culture and moralized views of weight. Their conversation traces how children’s “natural” pickiness was culturally constructed through things like Clara Davis’s studies, rising processed foods and instant alternatives, advice from Dr. Spock, and marketing power via supermarkets and the media. They discuss diluted “foreign” foods, faddists like Fletcher, the decline of Home Ec classes, and how history could inform a more balanced, pleasurable relationship to food. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:When did picky eating become a “thing”? 14:56: You know, another thing I thought about a lot was that there are all sorts of things our kids are initially reluctant or fearful about today. My kids didn't want to put on pants for a while. They didn't want to wear snow boots in the snow. They didn't want to go to school or brush their teeth or put on sunblock or wear seat belts or car seats. But I just had this enormous cultural confidence. Of course they can get used to it because I see everybody else doing it, and I didn't hesitate to just, you know, insist that they do it in a way that the structure of daily life used to just insist children eat this kind of food, and they were getting used to it in such large numbers and so quickly that people didn't see it as a thing. So that really became the book. Like, how did we start to see this as a thing and to think it had this really unique psychological significance? And, you know, the answers are really complicated. And a lot of it happened in the 20th century. Why is our relationship with food so complicated? 34:20: Americans have a very uneasy relationship to pleasure of food, as like we're really hedonistic in a lot of ways. We consume a lot of junk food, this high-calorie, high-sugar delicious food, and we're like, ‘You can't tell me not to eat this.’ It's a big part of American culture, but it's not deeply pleasurable in some ways, right? The pleasure of eating with other people, the pleasure of feeling good about what we've eaten, and how it affects our bodies. We often have pleasure in a very narrow way today. How supermarkets changed what kids eat 25:12: Grocers as, you know, and general stores which preceded them, these were adult interactions. This was more or less designed to be one adult talking to another, with a list in hand. Kids were particularly invited into this conversation. But by the time modern grocery stores, which start really in the '20s, maybe 30s, start popping up in American towns and cities, and by the '50s we get supermarkets, really much larger stores with the big carts. That's a totally different model. Self-service leads immediately to just an explosion of impulse buying. In fact, the term was coined in the 1940s to describe what was going on in supermarkets, and it also led to an explosion of children's power over family food purchases in a way they hadn't before. Marketers keenly are aware of this. Show Links:Recommended Resources: Fernand BraudelJacques PépinSidney MintzAnnales SchoolClara M. Davis and the wisdom of letting children choose their own dietsNeophobiaBenjamin SpockSigmund FreudHorace FletcherJohn Harvey KelloggEuthenicsDarwinismHome EconomicsGuest Profile: Personal WebsiteFaculty Profile at Michigan State UniversityGuest Work: Amazon Author PagePicky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in HistoryModern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth CenturyFood in the Civil War Era: The SouthFood in the Civil War Era: The NorthFood in the American Gilded AgeIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: 236: James Hamblin - Cleanliness, Purity, Health and Culture454: Paula S. Fass - American Childhood From the Frontier to Helicopter Parenting Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    684. Picky Eaters of the 20th Century: How Americans Learned to Eat with Helen Zoe Veit

  7. Sep 11

    683. A Woman’s Economic Toolkit for a Happier Life with Corinne Low

    Is it true that divorced moms actually do less housework than married moms? Is there an optimal time for women to pause their careers to start a family? How can you tell by the third date whether or not your relationship is a good deal?  Dr. Corinne Low is a professor of public policy and economics at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book, Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours, provides a roadmap for optimizing your resources and maximizing your satisfaction in life, whether it be with your career or your family.  Corinne and Greg discuss the problems modern women face in the workplace and at home, the economic tools women can apply to make the most out of what they’ve got, and the importance of strategically picking a romantic partner. They also unpack the million dollar question with profound social implications: Why are women still expected to do the majority of the housework?  *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:Women can earn more and still do more housework 28:00: In my data, I will see couples, and we focused on couples who are hourly workers 'cause otherwise people would say, "Well, men just have jobs that are more inflexible, and women have these more flexible jobs, so that's why women end up doing more of the housework." But if we zoom in on couples where they're both hourly workers, and I could go to a couple where she is earning four times what he earns per hour, okay? And she does more than twice as much housework, and he works more hours than she does, and she works fewer hours. So that couple, if he would take on some of the domestic load and she could, in the modal couple here, she's like a healthcare worker, so if she could pick up a shift as a nurse, the couple would be richer. It would loosen their economic constraints. What is stopping them? And yes, I have to think it's these deeply ingrained gender norms about what roles do we learn in our natal households? How do we feel like we're contributing? Optimize for the life you actually want 03:57: We're all facing scarcity. But if you figure out what your utility function is and you figure out what constraints you're facing, you can solve for a life that meets your needs, fulfills you, enriches you, and provides you all sorts of amazing opportunities. But that does sometimes mean being selective and not trying to go for the maximum of everything everywhere all at once. Is there a perfect time to have a child? 41:30: Having a child is such an important life decision and is going to be, ultimately, such a larger source of utility than your career for people who do choose to become parents, that you should do that when works for your family, right? I think you should be strategic about all the infrastructure you build around when you do that, but I don't think that you should try to be perfectly strategic about when you do it. Show Links:Recommended Resources: Daniel Kahneman Richard Thaler Cass Sunstein Claudia GoldinLeave It to Beaver “Degrees are Forever: Marriage, Educational Investment, and Lifecycle Labor Decisions of Men and Women” by Mary Ann Bronson “The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions” by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. KatzLena Edlund Guest Profile: Faculty Profile at University of Pennsylvania Professional WebsiteProfile on LinkedInProfile on InstagramGuest Work: Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours If you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: Understanding the Gender Wage Gap feat. Claudia GoldinBalancing Personal Life and Career Decision Making with Myra Strober and Abby Davisson Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    683. A Woman’s Economic Toolkit for a Happier Life with Corinne Low

  8. Sep 8

    682. Exploring Complexity: From Physics to Economics with J. Doyne Farmer

    J. Doyne Farmer is a Professor of Complex Systems Science at Oxford University, Hedge-Fund Founder, and author of the new book, Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World.  Greg and Doyne discuss why complexity science has not displaced mainstream economics. Doyne argues that economics is intellectually conservative and overly committed to closed-form math, with behavioral challenges and the 2008 crisis highlighting endogenous dynamics. He also recounts working to beat roulette using physics, his work on chaos (sensitive dependence, strange attractors), and using simulation as a core complex-systems method.  When they shift to the topic of finance, he describes “market ecology,” specialists with noisy skill, and why even uninformed trades have market impact. Doyne notes bounded rationality’s rise with modern computing and data, critiques systemic regulation, and describes industry-leading simulation work, including COVID UK economic-policy modeling and energy-transition/climate models that emphasize data-driven forecasts and policy nudges. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes:Randomness is a subjective concept 08:50: As graduate students, Norman Packard and I and about 15 or 20 others, decided to predict the game of roulette, and we thought we were going to get rich by beating the game of roulette. And roulette is interesting 'cause it's, from the point of view of a casino, it's a random number generator, or at least it's supposed to be. From a physicist, it's a rolling ball on a circular track with a counter-rotating inner wheel, and that's just physics. And when we realized that 15 seconds elapsed between the time the ball's released and them closing the bets, typically, we realized we had time to gather initial data, make predictions. We bought a roulette wheel. We derived the forces acting on the ball and the wheel, built this all into a computer that we operated with our toes, and we did beat the game of roulette. We didn't really get rich, but it did make me realize that randomness is a subjective concept. To us, it wasn't random. To somebody else, it would be. And looking at things a different way could change that.  What really is complexity 13:34: Complex systems just means any kind of system where you have components that have emergent behavior... [14:08]. The system as a whole exhibits qualitatively different properties from its individual components. Better models can make systems perform worse 29:02: When you have a system with agents who are modeling their world and acting upon the model, as the models get more sophisticated, the trying to model the whole becomes harder and harder. And, and in some circumstances, the whole system performs worse when everybody has better models because they're too busy trying to outfox the other guys. Now, the economists would say, "Oh, no, but if they're all rational, it all settles into the best solution." Yeah, but we know they aren't. So then you have to really understand the way in which the collective behavior of boundedly rational models causes overshoots and undershoots at the level of the whole economy, and the ways in which, um, what's good for an individual if everybody else is behaving simply can be not good for anybody if everybody does it. Show Links:Recommended Resources: Complex SystemSanta Fe InstituteAdam SmithFriedrich Hayek2008 Financial CrisisNorman PackardEfficient-Market HypothesisEugene FamaHerbert A. SimonWassily LeontiefGosplanSystems thinkingInternational Energy AgencyCyberneticsGuest Profile: Faculty Profile at the University of OxfordFaculty Profile at the Santa Fe InstituteDoyneFarmer.comLinkedIn ProfileWikipedia ProfileGuest Work: Amazon Author PageMaking Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better WorldGoogle Scholar PageIf you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like: 423: Geoffrey West - The Scale of Everything: Unifying the Sciences of Growth, Complexity, and Innovation571: Scott E. Page - The Power of Diverse Models in Decision Making Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    682. Exploring Complexity: From Physics to Economics with J. Doyne Farmer
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About

unSILOed is a series of interdisciplinary conversations that inspire new ways of thinking about our world. Our goal is to build a community of lifelong learners addicted to curiosity and the pursuit of insight about themselves and the world around them.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Information

  • Creator
    Greg La Blanc
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    689
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

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