An Autonomous Agent

exploring the noosphere

Category: capitalism

Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order – Noam Chomsky

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On September 19, 2014

In american, book, capitalism, civilization, earth, history, noam chomsky, political science, social behavior

In Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order, Noam Chomsky critiques the economic vogue held by a large number of economists and government officials during the last quarter of the 20th century and continuing to this day. In truth, it seems as if many of our climate and social problems stem from the concerns raised by Chomsky. If we as a species wish to continue living in a global community on Earth — enjoying the benefits of mutual aid and global economic prosperity to achieve a greater civilization, it seems that it is necessary to address the issues presented by Chomsky. Of course, working towards such an ideal society and generating such sublime goals is always optional. The foundation upon which rests all great civilizations is the confidence and power of its people to see and seize their own destiny. Read the book and you may begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

David Harvey

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On February 18, 2014

In anthropocene, anthropology, capitalism, david harvey, economics, finance, investing, social behavior, video, youtube

David Harvey has an amazing awareness of society. Listening to him discuss his perspective and ideas about cities, money, and capitalism brings with it the joy of great insight into the behaviors and relations of human activities which the intellectual listener will enjoy. I will have to eventually pick up a few of his books. For now, I will watch his lectures:

Das Kapital – Karl Marx

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On February 17, 2014

In anthropology, capitalism, das kapital, david harvey, didier sornette, economics, friedrich engels, karl marx, robert prechter

Das Kapital – The three volume set by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels may contain the theoretical underpinnings for the observations of R. N. Elliott. The fundamental interactions involved in economics via social relationships between commodities lead to the development of Elliott Waves — later expanded upon by Prechter, Sornette, and others. More on this possible connection in a future post. Regardless, based on what I have read so far, I think this will be an interesting intellectual read. The well-worn hardback copy version I am reading, from a Boston library, was published in 1902; I wonder who has read this copy in the past 112 years?

Volume 1 – Capital: Critique of Political Economy
Volume 2 – Capital: The Process of Circulation of Capital
Volume 3 – Capital: The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole

Ebook and PDF versions: here and here

Also, for some lectures and commentary on the book see David Harvey’s website.

Possible conception for The Organism which Marx refers to:

After Capitalism – David Schweickart

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On March 20, 2013

In after capitalism, book, capitalism, david schweickart, documentary, economics, loyola university, video, youtube

After watching documentaries like Home, I try to think of solutions to problems like deforestation in Haiti. I don’t really have an answer, but there are people who have good ideas about what should be done. David Schweickart at Loyola University Chicago provides many ideas about how countries like Haiti could repair themselves. He also talks about the future of the world’s economy. I believe that capitalism will not last forever, and new ideologies will eventually replace it. Schweickart talks about a potential replacement in this video: Life is Possible After Capitalism. For more information, read his book After Capitalism.

Human Collective Intelligence

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On February 28, 2013

In anthropocene, autonomous agent, capitalism, collective intelligence, complexity theory, dna, Godel, math, physics, thoughts

The collective intelligence of humans is remarkable. We all share 99% of genes, yet when you look at the vast majority of the population at any given instant, the amount of ignorance and differing knowledge is stunning. Look at the achievements of humans. But, given a single individual who is deemed to be the “most intelligent” of the population, you will not find in him the majority of which is required to construct and maintain of the structures humans have built.  The smartest one will only be an expert in a specific field of knowledge. Their contributions include discovering the Theory of Relativity, proving the incompleteness of logical systems (Godel’s Theorem) or writing rules for Calculus and other such concepts we now have in our library of knowledge.
This reliance on the collective is very interesting; especially considering the United States is built upon  the concept of individual freedom. So, I suggest you compare the collective societies, where the individual has his freedom secondary to the state. In these populations, you don’t have the same level of massive collective intelligence as in Capitalist societies. Instead, these societies tend to have a population which share a single monotonous intelligence. It seems paradoxical to have such a collective strength emerge out of a multitude of distinct autonomous units and a lack of such strength when these units are more uniform in their actions. But is it precisely this power of individual freedom and expression which leads to the formation of reliance on collective interactions.

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