[ExI] The End of the Future

[Dennis May]

Stefano Vaj wrote:
 
> Just to play Devil's advocate, it is perfectly true 
> that planned economies used to mimic - or at best 
> be based on! - serial computers of a limited power.

> It might however be possible today to have real, 
> literal parallel computing actually surpassing the 
> performance of the markets as far as economic 
> optimisation is concerned.
 
Unless the central planner relinquishes control over
economic decisions a better and better model of
how to optimize things is still central planning using
the model of a serial computer to control what could
be a more efficient parallel process.  Central planners
attempt a degree of parallel efficiency when they
delegate authority.  This produces a serial operation
at the top controlling a combination of serial and
parallel processes below it.  The delegates below
the top serial central planners then become their
own central planners also without adequate 
information and producing bottlenecks.
 
The dreams of serial central planners assume a 
number of things never realized in action and never 
reaching the capabilities of parallel operation [free
markets].
 
When central planners control information [education]
the feedback loop enforcing the seen and unseen
favors what is seen to have the positive products
of central planning while the unseen [erased from
history] or never allowed to happen [lack of free
markets] can be dismissed.
 
The history of central planning is always "oh we
can do it better than the last guy who failed" while
never questioning the fundamental validity of the
approach - which is a flawed understanding of
information in markets, efficiency, production,
and technological growth.
 
Dennis May
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