The Invisible Hand is a myth too
Dave Winer,
Scripting News,
Jun 09, 2011
I resubscribed to Dave Winer recently and I must say I'm really enjoying the new Dave Winer. There's a sense of history and perspective to his writing that wasn't there, say, five years ago. This post is a case in point, reminding people that freedom of speech is not an absolute and that Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' of the marketplace is a myth. Both have to do (in different ways) with network structures, and network structures are not a given. We build them, we shape them, we determine how they function. "We need to have a collective consciousness that isn't completely insane." Quite right. And sometimes - sometimes - when we tweak the rules of how our networks operate, it's so we can keep ourselves on an even keel, preventing the disruptions, distortions and disturbances that impair, rather than aid, cognitive function.
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