My talk at MIT Sloan School on simulations and science
Here is the video, a bit short of an hour, you may recall this was my abstract:
What happens when a simulated system becomes more real than the system itself? Will the internet become “more real” than the world of ideas it is mirroring? Do we academics live in a simulacra? If the “alt right” exists mainly on the internet, does that make it more or less powerful? Do all innovations improve system quality, and if so why is a lot of food worse than before and home design was better in 1910-1930? How does the world of ideas fit into this picture?
By the end I considered whether we might make science better by first making it “worse.” I also covered The Phantom Tyler Cowen, and whether attempted refutation is the best way to approach a new idea.