Chapter 15 Kenneth

Kenneth No, David, said Anderson, I don't have time to organize this economics seminar. But Phil, Paines said on the phone, you said a lot of interesting things when you talked to Reid.This new workshop will be a fantastic opportunity.You invite the physicists, and then we invite the best economists to form the other half of the workshop. no. Listen, said Paines, I know this adds another thing to you.But you think, you're going to find this really interesting, think about it.Talk to Mrs.If you agree, I will help you.You don't have to stay in Santa Fe all the time. Well, Anderson sighed.Well, David, I'll just do it.

Although Anderson had agreed, he didn't know where to start.He has never organized such a seminar.But who ever did it?Well, obviously, the first thing to do is find someone who can take the lead in inviting the other half of the economists to the seminar.He also knew at least one economist: James Tobin of Yale University, who had gone to the same high school as him, was a few years ahead of him, and also happened to be a Nobel laureate in economics.Jimmy, he said on the phone, are you interested in something like this? No, I'm not interested.Tobin said after listening to Anderson explain what he wanted him to do.He is not a suitable candidate.But Stanford's Ken Arrow might be interested.In fact, Anderson would gladly give Ah Ro a call if he wanted to.

Tobin must have had a good description on the phone.Arrow did show interest when Anderson called him. "Ken and I talked for a long time on the phone," Anderson said. "It turned out that our views were very similar." Although Arrow is one of the founders of mainstream economics today, he also, like Anderson, held some rebellious attitudes towards traditional theory.He was all too aware of the weaknesses of conventional economic theory.In fact, he can more clearly explain its disadvantages than any critic.He also occasionally published what he called "dissenting" papers calling for new ways of thinking.He urged economists to pay more attention to human psychology.For example, he has recently become very interested in applying nonlinear mathematics and chaos theory to economics.So, if Anderson and the Santa Fe Institute folks think they can go in a new direction—“Well, that sounds like an interesting thing to do,” he says.

So Anderson and Arrow set out to draw up a list of candidates for this workshop using the same criteria that were used to invite members of the founding workshop.They want people with outstanding academic backgrounds who are open-minded to participate in this seminar. On Arrow's part, he thought he needed someone with a solid grasp of orthodox economics.He doesn't mind people criticizing normal economics, but they better know very clearly what they are criticizing.He thought for a while and wrote down a few names. Then, he needs someone who is more experienced to join in.He thought it would be a disadvantage for the seminar to be attended only by people with a solid knowledge of neoclassical economic theory.You need someone to remind you of the things that conventional economics doesn't explain about reality.Let me think about it.Maybe the guy who he heard him talk about last year would be a good fit, the guy who's been doing the demographics, the guy who's been talking about increasing returns.His research is good.

Arthur Bryan.He wrote the name on the list.