TODAY!
The Mind of the Market
FREE lecture on Evolutionary Economics
with Michael Shermer
Wednesday, March 21st, 4pm
Claremont Graduate University, CA
Albretch Auditorium
This week Dr. Michael Shermer will be trying out some new ideas he has developed for his next book on evolutionary economics in a FREE lecture entitled, The Mind of the Market: Lessons from Evolutionary Economics, Behavioral Economics, Neuroeconomics, Complexity Economics, and Virtue Economics.
How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so irrational when it comes to money and business? Bestselling author Dr. Michael Shermer argues that evolution provides an answer to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary economics.
Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. Employing research from complexity theory, Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both examples of a larger phenomenon of complex adaptive systems. Along the way, Shermer answers such provocative questions as:
- Do our tribal roots mean that we will always be a sucker for brands?
- How is the biochemical joy of sex similar to the rewards of business cooperation?
- How can nations increase trust within and between their borders?
- Finally, Shermer considers the consequences of globalization and what will happen if nations allow free trade across their borders.
Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and the host of the public science lecture series at Caltech. He is the author of Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, How We Believe, and Why People Believe Weird Things.
For further information contact:
THIS WEEKEND!
The Lucifer Effect
Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
with Dr. Philip Zimbardo
Sunday, March 25th, 2pm
Ramo Auditorium (below Baxter Lecture Hall)
$8 members, $12 non-members
Purchase tickets in advance from the Caltech events office:
626-395-4652 or events@caltech.edu
How is it possible for ordinary, average, even good people to become perpetrators of evil? Dr. Zimbardo, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, ran the famous “Stanford Prison Experiment” in the late 1960s that randomly assigned healthy, normal intelligent college students to play the roles of prisoner or guard in a projected 2 week-long study that he was forced to terminate after only 6 days because it went out of control, with pacifists becoming sadistic guards, and normal kids breaking down emotionally. Dr. Zimbardo applies his theories to understanding torture in the Inquisition, the massacre in Rwanda, the rape of Nanking, and the abuse and torture in Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison…
Reginald Finley
Report from The Amazing Meeting 5! (part 4)
This week, Skepticality bids a fond farewell to The Amazing Meeting 5 conference in Las Vegas. Derek & Swoopy wrap up with a recollection of a few of their favorite moments. Fittingly, their last TAM interview is with a fellow Atlanta-based podcaster who happens to be one of their skeptical heroes. Skepticality is pleased to sit down with an important early trailblazer in skeptical radio (a guy who brought critical thinking to podcasting before the word “podcast” even existed): Reginald Finley, The Infidel Guy.
NEW products at Shop Skeptic
- A Devil’s Chaplain
book by Richard Dawkins - Decoding the Da Vinci Code:
The Gospel of Judas & Other Biblical Mysteries
Lecture at Caltech by Tim Callahan
