Category: Books

Who was Isaac Newton? In his own age, Newton was a god of reason who created a perfect and perfectly rational universe. To a later and more romantic age, he became a monster, a bizarre unsociable creature who stripped the world of its rich mystery. More recently he has been outed as a closeted mystic who delved deeply into religious prophecy and alchemy. As John Maynard Keynes famously pronounced, “Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians.” Which Newton do you see? James Gleick does a fine job in this book of telling the story not only of the man, but of how he was perceived. After all, where exactly are the lines that separate magic, religion, and science? They are foggy enough even now, and in the 17th century they were indiscernible. Newton, in pursuing occult matters, wasn’t engaged in a childish sideshow. He was doing the same thing that led him to his law of universal gravitation. He could not know that his investigations into the biblical prophecies of Daniel would not lead him to results as fundamental as his physics. He was simply doing what he did better than anyone before or since: observing, theorizing, experimenting, and systematizing. In so doing he sharpened the lines between what we now think of as the clear and separate domains of science, magic, and religion, though this was certainly not his intent. It’s just that his science succeeded where his theology did not. But who can blame him for thinking that his vision could penetrate any topic? Gleick’s book is very good, a sympathetic and rounded portrait of a strange and extraordinary man.

EXTRA! Hand of Smith revealed by Smith; invisible appendage appears in wind tunnel

Vernon L. Smith was recently awarded the 2002 Nobel prize for economics. And what contribution earned him half a million dollars and a date with the Queen of Sweden? The answer has to do with wind tunnels.

As luck would have it, I’m reading a very good book on this very topic by a guy named Ross Miller who was once a student of Smith’s. Incidentally, the book, Paving Wall Street: Experimental Economics and the Quest for the Perfect Market, was given to me by a clever and generous reader of this weblog who works in the finance business. The key phrase in the title is experimental economics. Miller regularly uses the analogy of wind tunnels in his descriptions. Most economists, as they try to explain Adam Smith’s famously invisible hand, prefer to treat the “rational behavior” of humans in a very hands-off theoretical way. Vernon Smith asks instead: What can we learn about economics by actually performing experiments with real people? Quite a lot, as it turns out. His work showed that markets, even tiny ones without much shared information, can be extremely effective at pricing goods. And why weren’t economists doing this kind of experimental work years ago? Engineers, for example, are trained to start experimental simulations as soon as possible. No jet designer would build a plane without running it through extensive tests in a wind tunnel. Miller’s book shows how the cultural biases in the economics profession blocked the acceptance of experimental work early on, and then he traces his storyline through the vindication and ascendency of experimental techniques. Now the second edition of his book can acknowledge his mentor’s ultimate achievement.

By the way, here’s something cool: the resum� of a Nobel Prize winner, including 15 pages of publications. I’m picturing myself flipping through this and giving him a call: “Sorry, Vern, it doesn’t look like a good fit here… uh-huh. No, no, Vern, don’t feel bad. Look, here’s the number for Nobel & Co. in Stockholm. Give them a call… ask for Al. They might have something. You never know. Yeah… uh-huh. Buh-bye.”