A couple of days ago TED feature a talk by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita that was a perfect example of mathematical arrogance with potential disastrous consequences for society.
In a previous post I discussed how Bueno de Mesquita’s approach almost perfectly mirrored the stance of most modern macro-economists — who pretend to predict economic events with razor-like precision through the use of mathematical models — and is one of the crucial causes of the current credit crisis.
But today I watched a TED talk by Margaret Wertheim that is exactly the example of the opposite mindset. She approaches math in a beautiful, non-conventional, creative way: to create mathematical models that allow people to crochet structures in the form of dazzling coral reefs.
The impact of crocheting coral reefs and sea slugs goes well beyond its aesthetic value and its power to further the cause of preserving these particular forms of sea life. It happens that crocheting is so far the only way to model hyperbolic space, which was considered impossible by mathematicians until Dr. Daina Tarmina from Cornell University crocheted her first piece of coral in 1997.
Perhaps economists would benefit from taking crocheting lessons to balance their extreme left-mindedness and open their field to alternative tools for modeling complex social phenomena other than their used and abused differential equations!
