Choice

Spending almost everyday in the school library has me reading a lot of new an interesting stuff. One, I am reading up on the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis; you know, to try and prepare and see if I can take a shot at writing that massive essay on for the MAS competition. About what I learnt in that crisis? I learnt that speculation on the economy tends to be self-fulfilling. And that Adam Smith's invisible hand can break down. Adam Smith says that each individual, acting in their own self interest would collectively, unconciously, act for the greater good of the society. It is as if there is an invisible hand guiding the economy. But, there can be times where this invisible hand can cease to work, where sound economic principles apparently break down.

It is not difficult to see a similar situation in game theory. Some times, everyone doing the most rational act, result in an irrational solution, in large groups of people. The most common example is the Prisoner's Dilemma. Each person, doing the most rational thing to do, ends up with the worst result. That's where the invisible hand cease to guide anymore.

On another note, we have been studying moral ethics for GP. In a way, moral ethics involve the same idea, making choices, how do you make choices, based on what principles, blah blah. It is incredible how everything links up together, like a gigantic web of links.

Choice, is the most difficult thing to decide in the world.