Louisville Process Theology Network

An Invisible Brain

Oct 09, 2009

From Page 48:


?“Maybe we should amend Adam Smith?’s trademark metaphor of the invisible hand. Smith?’s point, of course, was that a bunch of far-flung people pursuing individual gain can, without really trying, collectively orchestrate a large-scale social process. The ingredients of a beautiful robe just seem to magically congregate, assemble themselves, and then find a buyer, as if guided from above.

It?’s a nice image and in some ways apt. After all, a ?‘hand?’ can do more work if moving goods is easy ?– if transportation costs are low thanks to the proximity of all the players. Still, this metaphor gives short shrift to the other kind of cost that Smith stressed: the cost of processing data and ?‘deciding?’ where the various resources should go.

Hands aren?’t very cerebral, after all; guiding any invisible hand there must be an ?‘invisible brain.?’ Its neurons are people.

The more neurons there are in regular and easy contact, the better the brain works --- the more finely it can divide economic labor, the more diverse the resulting products. And, not incidentally, the more rapidly technological innovations take shape and spread.

As economists who espouse ?‘new growth theory?’ have stressed, it takes only one person to invent something that the whole group can then adopt (since information is a ?‘non-rival?’ good). So the more possible inventors ?– that is, the larger the group ?– the higher its collective rate of innovation.

All told, then, Northwest Coast Indians out-produced and out-invented the Shoshone not because they had better brains but because THEY WERE a better brain.?”