New on Free Will: Award-Winning Journalist Kerry Howley!

by Will Wilkinson on June 30, 2008

On Saturday, after several disastrous attempts, Kerry and I suceeded (sort of) in recording a new diavlog. We talk mainly about her latest Reason cover on fertility panics, but also about the tyranny of old people, and scrapbooking. Botched ending makes it special!

I’m insanely recording three this week. They are: Robin Hanson on Hansonism, Bruce Caldwell on Hayek, and Jim Holt on jokes. What would you like me to ask them?

Viewing 14 Comments

John V 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Ask Caldwell how Hayek truly fits into economics today. Ask him what economists think of him who are driven by goals that conflict with Hayek's major life's work on information, knowledge, markets and the fatal conceit.

And if they think he's not as relevant, what empowers them to clearly think so.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

GilM 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I'm much more interested in humor than in laughter (and all its signalling utility and evolutionary history). Ask Holt about the fundamentals of why we find things funny, as opposed to why we laugh at things.

Also, I'd be interested in what he thought of The Aristocrats.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

4 /people/GilM/ /people/GilM/following/ http://AReasonableman.com

Erich 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

As far as I know, Robin has a wife, 2 kids, and a taste for beer. Where does Robin transform from Human to Hansonian?
Also, riffing off Tyler, what is Hanson's most absurd belief?

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

Matt McIntosh 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Ask Caldwell about Wittgenstein's influence on Hayek. I can see it peeking out whenever he talks about language and the embodiment & transmission of knowledge in the form of rules, but it's never explicit (so far as I know -- I haven't read Hayek's essay on his cousin) and I'm curious to know if Caldwell can shed any light on this, in terms of how much influence there actually was and the differences between the two.

Also, I've had the vague notion for a while that Hayek meshes very well with much of Quine, but never sat and thought too much about it. If you and Caldwell could explore this at all, that'd be super-neat.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://gnxp.com

Lee 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Robin Hanson was interviewed by Russ Roberts on two very enjoyable EconTalk podcast episodes. The first was about health care, and the second was about signaling.

Talk about prediction markets, especially the controversy around his DARPA-funded work --- that will interest a broad audience and be a good intro, possibly. Get him to say some stuff about alternative political institutions related to futures markets.

Ask him about his medical-skepticism, but if he sketches ideas premised on evo-psych speculations, please give him some push back. I wouldn't waste a lot of time on post-human or cryogenic stuff as that's weird and not all that interesting, I think.

I'd avoid talk about Bayesian reasoning unless you want to dig directly into the controversy surrounding the different interpretations of probability --- something too dry for the format, I think.

Cognitive bias is an obvious point of conversation.

Press him about utilitarianism, or whatever it was that led him to take up Mankiw's challenge and come out in favor of a height-tax.

You might try turning him on himself, asking which criticisms of his ideas he finds strongest. I think he's a fair dealer and very clear headed, so that could be illuminating.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://leebeck.com

Lee 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

As for Caldwell on Hayek, you should chat about how Hayek as political philosopher was concerned with helping the poor through institutions and contrast him with other libertarians, as you did so well in a recent blog post.

If you discuss spontaneous order stuff, please be critical. In the price system, okay maybe; but gestures toward spontaneous emerging this-and-that in theoretical psychology and stuff about knowledge passed down through morality and law is weird. Also the central thesis of the book he is most well-known for is wrong, isn't it? Please discuss.

All three interviews will be great, I think.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://leebeck.com

Unit 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I've enjoyed the diavlog. I have two comments and a funny thought.

First, I got the impression that Kerry thinks that fertility politics is all about telling women what to do. However, raising a family, especially with 2+ kids, is definitely a two-parents job.

Second, retired people were mentioned as a united voting block that has become alien to the economic dynamics of a society. I'm sure there's some of that, but they still need people to mow their lawns, to cook for them, to nurse them, etc....so if anything, old people should me even more aware of the benefits of immigration.

Lastly, the funny thought. Throughout the broadcast I was imagining screaming kids in the background, running after each other, arguing repetitively "It's mine! No mine! No mine!", crashing sounds, etc....with Will and Kerry trying hard to maintain their composure :-)

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://imaginarypolitics.wordpress.com

muttblog 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I'd like to know more about Hanson's views on religion. He's taken issue with his co-blogger's strident atheism but is reticent about his own views.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

1 /people/muttblog/ /people/muttblog/following/

Swimmy 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I agree that you should press Hanson on the height tax issue. Bring up Megan McArdle's post ( http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/20... ) on why Mankiw's paper doesn't take everything into account, especially for women.

Since I know you follow the Intelligent Design debate, you might want to bring up Hanson's post on Expelled ( http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/05/expelled-... ). He seemed to like it quite a bit more than the average rationalist, especially in comparison to Sicko.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://soundsfamiliar.blogspot.com

Will Wilkinson 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I should mention that I chatted with Robin yesterday afternoon, before I had the chance to take all your excellent suggestions into account. I fear I spent too long on disagreement, and hope I can get to some of this other stuff in a sequel.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

3 /people/willwilkinson/ /people/willwilkinson/following/ http://willwilkinson.net/flybottle 851540116 willwilkinson willwilkinson

Greg N. 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I'd like to see Caldwell talk a little about Hayek's agnosticism, and his views on religion generally. (I'm thinking of the kind of stuff found in the appendix of Fatal Conceit).

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

Matt McIntosh 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Caldwell will tell you that most of what's in TFC is suspect -- Uncle Fritz was going senile by that point in his life and it was very heavily edited by WW Bartley, to the point where it's more of a Bartley-Hayek hybrid than a genuine Hayek book.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://gnxp.com

Greg N. 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Tell me something I don't know, Matt. That's why I want Caldwell to expand on it...

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

darleenclick 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Just saw that "tyranny of the old" stuff. Wow. Let me get this straight. If a wave of immigrants from outside the US change a local culture to match their own, that is a GOOD thing, but if a wave of intra-US immigrants change a local culture to match their own (warm Iowa) that's a BAD thing.

Mighty fine logic there.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

1 /people/darleenclick/ /people/darleenclick/following/ http://proteinwisdom.com