A Manhattan Project For Economics?

Last December, Mike Brown, Stuart Kauffman, Zoe-Vonna Palmrose, and Lee Smolin discussed "Can Science Help Solve the Economic Crisis?" They suggest that what we need now is an economics Manhattan project. And by the way, neoclassical economics is not completely correct. (The Edge seems like an interesting place, whatever you think of this article.)

I vaguely know something about two of these authors. I read Stuart Kauffman's At Home in the Universe a number of years ago. I had previously read something about the Santa Fe Institute, including some of Brian Arthur's papers. But the idea of mathematical biology, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary work from computer science was new to me.

I have been struggling through Peter Woit's Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law for a month or so now. The algebra is tough going for me. Maybe I would have been better off with Lee Smolin's book on the same topic. And I have Smolin's paper "Time and Symmetry in Models of Economic Markets" to read. Barkley Rosser, Jr., suggests that Smolin should read some more economics, but it seems to me Smolin is quite modest about the potential of his work. I think Rosser and Smolin and his colleague approach some harmony in the comments in that thread.

Hat Tip: New York Times