Technovia Notebook

The Free Market for Snake Oil and the Age of Unreason - broadstuff

"For example, let's say the icon of your choice spouts pure (but entertaining) cr*p to their 50,000 followers (who then re-tweet like good little acolytes), and a few experts in the field with a few thousand followers each rebut it, the correct version will be buried in the deluge. Ignorance prevails.

And it gets worse - typically, those espousing the populist cr*p can get funding from commercial entities, those resisting struggle for resources, so the field is further unbalanced. I have watched the "Free" hypothesis trumpeted in media organ after media organ , typically via journalists whose grasp of economics (or even maths) is tenuous at best. Tonight, for example, I am going to listen to Mr Anderson talk at the Royal Society of Arts - not the London School of Economics."

To Posterous, Love Metalab