[ExI] AIG Bail out

[Lee Corbin]

Damien S writes

> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 04:56:36AM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
>> Damien S. writes
> 
>> >I find it interesting that people who would admire top-down/bottom-up
>> >hybrids in other complex systems -- AI models, for example -- are
>> >allergic to them in society. :)
>> 
>> It may not always be the same people. I, for one, who believe
>> that a top-down design for an AI will probably not turn out
>> to be as successful as systems based upon evolutionary praxis,
> 
> Note I said top-down/bottom-up hybrid, like Hofstadter models, not pure
> top-down, which hardly anyone is into anymore.

Yes, thanks, so your point is now well-taken, i.e., indeed I *do* 
see a difference between our efforts to create an AI and our
efforts to re-design societies and economies. Have you read
Hayek at all?

We have no choice but to try to engineer solutions to our own
creations such as AI, something never before successfully tried.
If we had a working system already, it would be folly to try to
improve it, because we're still idiots about AI. However, we 
*do* know from enormous experience that economic systems
do work from time to time. There are many examples in history
where we really cannot complain that for an extended period of
time those economies were successful.

Hayek warned strongly (as did Von Mieses) about the arrogance
and vanity humans have when monkeying with societies. So far,
all planned societies or planned economies have failed abysmally.

But we have ample evidence (a good deal of it from the 19th
century) that free market economics work. Perhaps the only
issue is whether some people are so concerned about what
may happen to the very poor that they believe governments
ought to step in.  Okay, fine!  Take a one or two percent tax,
if you must, and give it to the poor. Fine. But we must stop
monkeying with the markets and stop the ever expanding layers
of regulation, which just never seem to work.

Lee