At 10:30 PM -0400 4/21/01, Faustine wrote:
>
>Even if you don't, there are few things more useful than building up a common
>terminology to use when trying to talk to (and learn from) people who really
>know what's going on. You know, 'reading the background material'.
I haven't found Samuelson's textbook useful for any of the
interesting discussions of markets, black markets, offshore havens,
alternative currencies, etc. in the past 25-30 years I've been
talking about this stuff with people. Including with economists on
mailing lists, and in person, and at conferences. Fact is, Samuelson
is not a good source for these issues. And as James Donald noted, any
of the basic ideas are also presented in the works of folks like
David Friedman.
But, the issues is really about the "allocation of scarce resources," Econ 1.
Which reading list approach is more efficient:
* Tim's reading list: A dozen or so readable books which members of
the list really should be familiar with. To wit, Vinge, Card,
Friedman, Stephenson, some Rand, some Heinlein, maybe some special
interest excursions into Axelrod, Hofstadter, etc.
* Faustine's reading list: Samuelson's textbook for econ majors,
similar textbooks in physics and math, presumably. (Faustine's
arguments apply to other fields: before mentioning the physics of
chips, for example, and what this may mean for cryptography, read
Sze's "Physics of Semiconductor Devices" and be sure to worth through
the problems. After all, being able to calculate band-bending in an
arsenic-doped substrate is crucial for discussing trends in computer
technology!)
We have both presented our approaches. Readers can choose whichever
approach they prefer.
>
>
>I just think it's important to get beyond the Libertarian Buzzword Bingo
>syndrome. If that's not where people are at, fine.
Thanks for the gratuitous compliment.
--Tim May
--
Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
