Today's New York Times has an article by Douglas Heingartner that some may find interesting. It reviews the use of computer-based algorithmic approaches to decision-making in business contexts: see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/technology/18model.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all Anyone familiar with Robyn Dawes work on decision-making as well as "regression approaches" to decision-making, etc., won't be surprised by what is presented though it is interesting how widely these approaches are being used. Of course, this leads to the obvious question:
WHACHA GONNA DO WHEN COMPUTER-AIDED DECISON-MAKING RUNS WILD OVER YOU~!?! Thank you. -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] P.S. The article briefly mentions the infamous "Long Term Capital Management" (LTCM) brokerage which was created by a Wall Street type named John Meriwether. What is significant about Meriwether and LTCM is that he had hired high-powered quantitative analysts, including a couple of Noble prize winners in economics, to develop mathematical models to describe the systems that would affect the price or performance of specific stocks/investment instruments. One really doesn't get a full impression of Meriwether from the Heingartner article above, so I would suggest taking a look at some of writings by Michael Lewis, author of "Liar's Poker" (describing his experiences as a broker on Wall Street) and "When Genius Fails" (which reviews the story behind LTCM). One review (by Roger Lowenstein) of "When Genius Fails" which provides substantial background is available at this website: http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/genius_fails.html Because I'm reading Altemer's work on Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), I'm struck (and amused) by Lowenstein's phrase "BSD" to describe Meriwether (Lowenstein uses the full phrase and not the acronym BSD but good manners prevent me from using this apparently common Wall Street descriptor in a professional context). But I do wonder how strongly related being a BSD is to RWA & SDO. Note: if you have access to the New York Times via Proquest, the following article by Michael Lewis in its Sunday magazine provides a quick overview of the LTCM situation as well as why and how being ruthless can easily trump being smart (moral: be smart and ruthless): Lewis, M. (1999, Jan 24) How the eggheads cracked. New York Times Magazine. P.P.S. Regarding the issue of the brain being able to power a small (Liliputian?) city. This idea may come from the Matrix movie series where humans are presented as being batteries (i.e., "Coppertops" or Duracell). Although the metaphor of machine ensalvement of humans as energy sources may be compelling to some, I've always wondered how it was possible for the machines to get more energy/power out of their human captives than they had to put in to maintain their lives. Seems to me that one or two laws of thermodynamics might be violated if this were the case. But why focus on such mundane things like facts when there are so many cool special effects, kung fu fights, and explosions to attend to? --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
