quick summary of afternoon sessions

1. social science is nearly as dismal as economics

a) they couldn't predict the arab spring

b) even given all the twitter data, they can't even _explain_ the past of the arab spring, let alone build a model that predicts the future

c) they don't bother looking at places where there WASNT an arab spring (e.g. EU countries like spain, greece, ireland, where occupy/indigandos movements were MUCH stronger and online, but have not led to any political change, in fact so far, probably the opposite:(

 

2. no-one has thought that the online social nets technology (and web in general) might actually make completely new forms of government possible other than socialist or capitalist democracy, religious states, or dictatorships (do I hear you say cyber-syndical anarchism?)

 

Doesn;t any one in this community think big (e.g. Kropotkin, Marx, etc) even terry eagleton who is about a million years old is smarter:)

 

3. I find it depressing that social scientists think academics do research for fame (i.e. impact) rather than an altruistic model, or even just plain curiosity...are they so reductionist that the world splits into commercial motives or personal ego-soothing ? maybe it does in their disciple - maybe that's why it  isn't really a discipline:)