Matt Ridley on The Rational Optimist & "Ideas Having Sex"

[lancsFrogger]

bizarre that people will pay money to listen to matt ridley talk about stuff he knows next to nothing about

maybe i should give it a go?

[collinliau]

Love it! I wrote a blog post about the faux wisdom of cynicism once! blog.collinli.com.au/the-faux-­wisdom-of-cynicism

[benkurz1]

Go libertarianism!

[feyzoh1985]

i've read the book, its wonderful.

[lucentenor]

Smart man, but I don't agree about piling government, business, and finance together under the title "big" and implying bigness makes them all bad. There's a significant difference between a big business(including financial) that gets big through free commerce and better products and big government that necessarily uses force rather than trade to grow. There is, however, a distinction between legitimate businesses and mercantilistic business- "big" simply isn't a sufficient synonym for bad.

[kev3d]

There seem to be some conflicting views on the Arabian contribution to Trade and Math. The Muslim Arabs did not "invent" math, they borrowed systems from India and Greece and added their own ideas which spread to Europe via Spain and the Byzantine Empire. "Algebra" and "Algorithm" originate from the 9th century Persian, Al-Khwārizmī. Trade was key to the spread of the Empire, stretching from Spain to India however much of the trade network was established through conquest, much like the Romans

[averagejoe040]

Have arabs done anything good since they became muslim? No.

[shampoovta]

I liked this. 2 +1 = 3 and 3 is better than 2 and 1 on there own. OR. Man and woman make baby that is an improvement on the parents.

I like to call this idea cut and paste. Use two existing things to make a third thing that is better than the two parts it is made up of.

This idea can apply to anything I can think of.

[furyofbongos]

What a total cad this guy is, thinking libertarianism is about holing up in the woods. Good grief.

[andristic]

@furyofbongos did you even listen to the rest of the talk after he said that?

[zuiprax]

Just imagine what the world would look like if we were using nuclear fission instead of fossil fuels. But I guess that threatens the oil industry to an unacceptable degree.

[megagagnon1]

Too bad he didn't take on why only the western european cultures are responsible for modern living standards. The american indians didn't even manage to invent a wheel.

[Idonthaveanamelol]

@megagagnon1

Tsk, that's quite the un-libertarian mindset you've got there. Here I was thinking that it was about in-duh-viduality, where race and creed are social constructs, and the only groups are joined voluntary.

Western europeans? American indians? What an alien concept!

[megagagnon1]

@Idonthaveanamelol Truth is truth. The light bulb, plastics, modern medicine, personal computers, etc etc etc invented by white people. Unlibertarian? I never knew denial was a libertarian concept.

[zuiprax]

@megagagnon1 And math was invented by arabs. Who the hell cares.

[lordaltay5]

@zuiprax Arabs did not 'invent' math... I think many cultures managed to come up with the concept independently. What made the Arab world a super power for centuries is something all libertarians can admire -- Free Trade. The Muslim Empire stretched from the Atlantic coast of Europe & Africa all the way to the Great Wall of China. Everyone in between was free to move and exchange goods. Banks, check writing, and other commercial activity flourished.

Too bad today's Arabs are so stupid :(

[zuiprax]

@lordaltay5 They did invent math, at least the closest to what we call math today.

I admire the free-er trade, but not so much the murder and enslavement of other people who have less free trade and thus less of an ability to defend themselves.

Unfortunately, all libertarian "empires" have been just that, empires. Free-er trade leads to economic progress which leads to a larger, more powerful state which grows by attacking people abroad and then locally. It then collapses, loop starts over..

[Mastikator]

@megagagnon1 Um dude, china is responsible. They're producing all our stuff.

[megagagnon1]

@Mastikator China didn't invent assembly line manufacturing - whitey did

[Mastikator]

@megagagnon1 So?

[DeraJa]

Sex really is great.

[blogegog]

@DeraJa That's not what my wife says :(.

[DeraJa]

@blogegog well hopefully it is at least great for you.

[zuiprax]

@blogegog huh, get a new one then

or there's always couples therapy