Nash Ashur shared the following video @ Twitter that I have retweeted. It is an extremely interesting dig by Kelso on reductive cartesian understanding of human systems, specifically naming Herb Simon since he is the complexity theory face of economics.
Here is the transcript;
“Babies …..have spontaneous organization. That’s a very nice thing to have for a living thing…. if you tie a ribbon to its toe and the toe is connected to a mobile…the baby suddenly realized–you know, “this is me kicking” ….”I’m changing the world here”….this is the orgin of agency
The coupling between what the baby is doing, and its effect on the world, ‘the mobile moving, and the world’s effect on it creates the notion that “hey this is me, I am doing that, not some mechanical engine”.
And it’s because of the collective state, the collective pattern. It’s not just the agent, not just an agent kicking and it’s not the…what the Herb Simon “the world is complicated that the human is simple”..Come Ooon !!.
So there’s coupling at all scales, bi-directional, that’s the key aspect.
It’s no longer ‘I think, therefore I am’ — “Cogito, ergo sum. It’s ‘I link, therefore I am’…think about it“
What Scott Kelso is talking about is the following comment from Herbert Simon.
“Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which we find ourselves.”
The above clip is an excerpt from the following YouTube video captioned: “New Foundations for Social Cognition and Strategic Interaction: Coordination, Anti-Coordination and Innovation”, a presentation given by Scott Kelso to economics audience.
Watch the comment at minute 25 of the following video
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