← Home
Sean Carroll's Mindscape · October 21, 2024 · 75m
293 | Doyne Farmer on Chaos, Crashes, and Economic Complexity
J. Doyne Farmer on Making Sense of Chaos and why traditional economic models fail. Markets are complex adaptive systems, not equilibrium machines. Agent-based modeling reveals emergent dynamics that equilibrium models can't capture.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Canon
•
Farmer: chaos theory proves that long-term prediction in economic systems is mathematically impossible. The wise response isn't better prediction but better resilience — controlling what you can (robustness) and accepting what you can't (specific outcomes).
Highlights
•
Environment shapes economic agents — markets as adaptive environments
Farmer: in complexity economics, the market is an adaptive environment that shapes agent behavior, which in turn reshapes the market. This feedback loop produces emergent dynamics that no individual agent intends.Was this useful?