The human conceit that we are the masters of our own destinies may be one of those hard-wired illusions which served an adaptive function in the distant past. Whatever the evolutionary truth of it, despite the fact that Calvinism, Islam, and modern science lean against the position that our will is free, we do live as if control is ours. But … [Read More]

Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending examine the interaction between civilization and evolution, and in the process smash to pieces the Blank Slate hypothesis.  150 years ago Charles Darwin published the Origin of Species. Origin was not revolutionary because it proposed that lineages changed over time; the idea was in the air of the age, and evolutionary theories have an ancient pedigree, … [Read More]

I recently read Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century by Jeffry A. Frieden.  As in many books in this genre the first age of globalization which ended in 1914 receives a great deal of treatment.  This was a period of free movement of capital, goods and labor.  Frieden observes that though there was agitation and organization against … [Read More]

Interacting with people in the sciences over my life one of the major issues I have noticed is an extreme hubris when it comes to their opinions in regards to non-scientific issues. Many individuals in the sciences consider all issues fundamentally scientific.  This engenders a certitude when it comes to public policy; there are no opinions, there are true descriptions of … [Read More]