As former ambassador of European climate policies, I felt appalled every few months while my job lasted. A seemingly insoluble problem us that for a long time all they do outsources problems via trade leading to land systems change---deforestation.
The carbon storage point made in the article is not valid for some countries in the EU, as they have more forest now that decades ago, and too much wildfire risk setting higher priorities.
Now that you mention it, once in Santa Fe (NM) I had a great dinner in a Tex-Mex... I felt the conversation went wild due to some substance --- I suspected thc --- but this really rings only a partial bell... why I never felt it so strong in Asia, where I consumed more capsaicin?
Turns out just about everybody, all around the world, loves authoritarian laws when they agree with the alleged goal, or when the psychological propaganda worked on them. If it's not the children, it's grandma, or someone else.
Turns out there are a small number of actual anti-authoritarians who have always been consistent. And then there are countless hangers-on who proclaim to be an anti-authoritarian resistance when it suits them. It's funny, the fact people co-opt it shows that they see it as a noble and worthy ideology, yet it's still one they're happy to discard the minute some talking head put on TV by a corporation tells them to be outraged.
I'd love to be put in contact with some of these true Scotsmen^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H anti-authoritarians. I need staunch moral support in my tireless, lonely fight against the soulless minions of orthodoxy who blithely kowtow to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 [0]. My perfectly fine produce deserves the embrace of the free market; it isn't up to some pencil-pusher in Washington to have the final say in how much lead there is in a tomato, it's between God, Man, and the Invisible Hand.
Are you one of the countless hangers-on who proclaim to be an anti-authoritarian resistance when it suits them?
I don't think a world where Yelp and the BBB managed the food safety ratings of restaurants would be a good one. That's a "solution", but is it a solution?
Besides, my tomatoes are certified safe by Nutr-Alert and SafeCo. SafeCo even lets me doctor the lab results myself, for a little extra! I'm still in negotiation with PureFood, but I'm sure this little speedbump will be ironed out before you know it. Iron is good for you, anyway; they don't even test for that.
>>>just about everybody, all around the world, loves authoritarian laws when they agree with the alleged goal, or when the psychological propaganda worked on them
You made a really strong claim in the post I'm quoting, and suggested that you are among those hardcore anti-authoritarians whom you lionize. But this is a real(ish) world example of that belief being challenged, and instead of explaining your principled stance, you're playin' around; you suggested you had "hit a nerve". Ah, right, I guess I'm just too emotional. Gotta stand up for what's right! No, not like that.
Of course I'm being facetious about my leaden tomatoes, but so too are you, and other readers of these words should think about how the "anti-authoritarians" actually practice their claimed stances, and where they don't.
"I’m pretty sure inhabitants will drink their own [processed] urine" this is a totally normal thing across world regions and a sign of civilization, why such funky immature stance?
"though surprisingly not all board members." reads as naive in this otherwise excellent piece, and shows what board membership is: corruption, revolving doors, and a bilateral way to influence stakeholders.
"Rundell’s take is that the Saudi state is, always has been, and always will be anti-terrorist because the ultimate goals of the monarchy are stability, stability, and stability" yet another naivitè, or rather an inability to think outside the box.
Entirely possible and very hard to predict but... I am not that convinced a lot of the work is impactful in the broader profession? Even within theory is this still a hot topic? I feel like this is something everyone was excited about around 2010++. [Not my subfield so you can tell me the answer is yes if you are an expert.]
And ... is networks worth a solo prize? If not, I am not sure who else he would share it with? Or how they would shoehorn this into a "Networks and..." prize. [If you are a micro theorist please feel free to correct me.]
I think it is still struggling to develop the necessary impact, although the work certainly is of that quality.
And I say that as an admirer and student of Matt, having also worked on these topics within that circle.
What would be a single theoretical result to highlight? No doubt, many beautiful results exist, say, existence of pairwise stable networks, equality of Nash equilibria and centrality, impact of complementarity or substitutability on multiple equilibria, information transmission etc. for an economist or mathematician that's exciting stuff.
But to get a Nobel you need either empirical impact and you need a soundbite (I think). A single idea - or a few of them - that encompass what it is about.
Network results rely on structure. That's what it is about. Everything else can be modeled by more parsimonious game theoretic models (and has been).
But what does structure offer that has not been explored by physics and sociology? Structural holes? Complexity? Phase transitions? That all predates econ.
To be fair, Matt Jackson has probably done as much as is possible in achieving so many outcomes - and in so many areas.
Like showing that canonical network models do not fit all empirical facts - e.g. preferential attachment leads to fat tails but never to positive assortativity and so real life networks also need second order discovery.
Or showing stuff about dominant groups in information cascades etc. etc.
It's just so much... but there's just no one thing. And it is all beautifully theoretical.
My prediction: The Nobel will come via empirical applications. Here, network structure matters a ton. Multiple equilibria, networked externalities and the associated identification issues are omnipresent and a part of life.
At some point, we will learn so much with these techniques they will give a Nobel, and then they also have to give it to Matthew.
Good questions and good points... something that bothers me is that networks are treated into micro when they actually relate to meso... connecting micro and macro.
Impossible to discern who would share the prize. Also, his network science is childish compared to nowadays econophysics multiplex approaches, but this was never a deterrent for the comittee.
The carbon storage point made in the article is not valid for some countries in the EU, as they have more forest now that decades ago, and too much wildfire risk setting higher priorities.