Netpositive

Why did I give my blog the tagline, “In defense of irrational exuberance?” I don’t argue on behalf of investment bubbles, though they can have definite benefits down the road (for instance, the cheap, ubiquitous availability of broadband connectivity fueled by the over-investment in fiber networks). Nor would I ever suggest that self-delusion is a trait to be fostered. What I do believe, and what I’m saying with the tagline, is that relentless optimism and energy itself can be transformative.

Alas, many people believe that optimism is self-delusion. This was the case with the learned professor of economics I had dinner with the other night. He is a practiced skeptic about the hype surrounding the supposed benefits of the Internet. In fact, he seemed to see precious little to praise about our “network of networks” or the applications it’s spawned.

I’d heard his complaints and arguments before, but not for years:

• Email doesn’t make communications more efficient, it creates noise and adds distractions to our busy lives
• The Internet doesn’t provide access to valuable information, it misleads us with half-baked or deceptive content
• Free information and services aren’t a social good, but irrational and unsustainable
• The Internet does not make individuals and business more efficient in their primary or secondary activities

For such an erudite scholar, he didn’t offer much in the way of evidence other than anecdotes about receiving too many email requests from students, and how difficult it is to find useful information via search engines. But his immovable position was disheartening–hadn’t we proved the benefits of all this information technology? Or has our collective optimism blinded us to the folly of it all?

It seems to me his view has more in common with creationism (or, if you prefer, Intelligent Design Theory) than science. Why? Because in his line his conclusions must match his theories (economic models), no matter the evidence. People’s choices are only “rational” in context to an economy based on measurable value. But so much of our behavior is driven by a drive for intangible value. And this weirdness is particularly prominent on the Internet.

I asked him how he explained Wikipedia. Why do all those experts give their time to curate lengthy entries. For free. And without attribution. And what about open source projects?

“I can’t explain them,” he replied. “They don’t make sense in our models.” He explained that the soft, social benefits normal people would use to explain such behavior weren’t measurable, and therefore didn’t exist.

Consequently he has no intent to address the anomalies.

“I don’t read blogs, either,” he said. “If they had anything of value they’d charge for it.”

This entry was posted Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Random. Both comments and pings are currently closed.