Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science

by Philip Mirowski

Overview

Machine Dreams recounts how the computer has transformed the content of American economics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521772839
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/03/2001
Pages:	670
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.61(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Cyborg agonistes; 2. Some cyborg genealogies; or, how the demon got its bots; 3. John von Neumann and the cyborg incursion into economics; 4. The military, the scientists and the revised rules of the game; 5. Do cyborgs dream of efficient markets?; 6. The empire strikes back; 7. Core wars; 8. Machines who think versus machines that sell; Envoi; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"As history, Machine Dreams is a remarkable achievement. It is hard to imagine a historian who was not an economist (as Mirowski is) being able to encompass the economics of the second half of the 20th century in its diversity and technicality." London Review of Books

"In Machine Dreams the most exciting historian of economic thought of our time takes on one of the most fascinating themes of the intellectual history of the 20th century--the dream of creating machines that can think and how this has affected the social sciences. The result is an extraordinary book that deserves to be read by everyone interested in the social sciences." Richard Swedberg, University of Stockholm

"Machine Dreams is an astonishing performance of synthetic scholarship. Mirowski traces the present-day predicaments of economic theory to its intellectual reformulation and institutional restructuring by military funding and in the crucibles of World War II and the Cold War. His demonstration that the mathematical economics of the postwar era is a complex response to the challenges of "cyborg" science, the attempt to unify the study of human beings and intelligent machines through John von Neumann's general theory of automata, is bound to be controversial. His critics, however, will have to contend with a breathtakingly wide range of published and unpublished evidence in fields ranging from psychology to operations research he presents. This noir history of economic thought will change its readers' understanding of twentieth century economics profoundly." Duncan Foley, New School University

"Phil Mirowski reminds me of an investigative reporter with a world-class story. He has gone straight to the heart of a really interesting problem--the emergence of economics' modern era in the crucible of World War II--and come back with a detailed account of events at The Cowles Commission and the RAND Corporation. It is news, the best that can be said quickly. It is opinion: cyborg economics (meaning purely cognitive economics) is not the sort of science Mirowski wants to see. And it is sensationally interesting. You don't have to agree with his conclusions to recognize that Mirowksi is the most imaginative and provocative writer at work today on the recent history of economics. Machine Dreams is a real-time cousin to The Difference Engine .". David Warsh, The Boston Globe

From the Publisher