Economics struggles with rigour. Development struggles with prejudicial questions. So, why don't we teach our young people social physics? Look at social space as a phenomenon of physics. Deeper economics tried that. But that attempt seems to have ended with Paul Samuelson and his lot. Why? Anyway, it is time for the more complex emerging economies to teach social physics instead of development economics.
Physica of social systems is a workable pathway for creative economic thought, in terms of economics of the next generation system.
https://www.dpg-physik.de/vereinigungen/fachlich/skm/fvsoe
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Futurizing economic thought via social physics will creatively lead to a natural science of human society, economy and mind.
Dear Fred
You mentioned Samuelson. He is said to approach economics as Physics.
According to F. Hayek, one reason why we cannot treat economic development as Physics is that Physics is a simple science. Hayek wrote:
“a Nobel laureate in physics, Louis W. Alvarez, stressed that `actually physics is the simplest of all the sciences.... But in the case of an infinitely more complicated system, such as the population of a developing country like India, no one can yet decide how best to change the existing conditions'”. (Hayek, 1990, Fatal Conceit, Routledge, p. 149)
Another argument that is of the same kind is that people can make choices, but an electron cannot.
ADDING THE WORD PHYSICS does not improve the status of development economics. Physics refers to the study of nature that follows a fixed set of rules. Wherea economics deals with human behavior which is changing and more complex. Research in development economics did not advance despite advances in scientific tools because training in economics does not push researchers towards that direction. Bud data analytics for instance is a positive advance in methodology but how many researchers applied it in development economics? The problem is not in the name of the field, the problem is the lack of training and interests in the field. The World Bank, ADB, IMF, etc. should lead the way in promoting research in this field. There is nothing wrong by calling this field DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS.
Dear Fred,
Understanding social and individual choice, decision making and generally knowing how human being interact themselves, how they get influenced by institutions is not as simple as that. We wish if things were as simple as that!
Yes, social space is complex. That is why we need social physics. Recall, social science is built around the concept of space as does physical science. Then social science asks: What is in the space? How are the parts connected? How are they moving? Those are questions of dynamical systems. Development economics would be the richer with a deeper use of that frame of physics. And our main problem is the teaching of physics. The beautiful subject is presented as a monster. Later, when we need physics across facets of reality (disciplines), it is not there. We lose physics too early. It is thrown out as monster. Now, the lower income countries, have more complex spaces (cf. non-ergodic systems). They need the analysis of physics more. And in physics we have the answer to the yearn for interdisciplinarity.
And to see the beauty of physics in social space, peer the Black-Scholes model of the social setting of financial markets with derivatives. Yet, the capture of that social setting needs to be enriched. We need deeper human attributes in the model, and we have a few scholarly efforts seeking the improvement. That said, the lens for that improvement remains physics. Alas, the emerging young markets that need the improvement the most are removed farther from physics. So, this thing we call development hinges on physics.
Hi
In my opinion, along with social physics, we should also promote and educate culture so that we do not face another global crisis due to ignorance.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physics