Machine Dreams
Book description
This was the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing…
Why read it?
1 author picked Machine Dreams as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Read anything by Mirowski. By far the best writer in the field today.
Highly original, massively intelligent, stimulating, witty, deeply informed, a trenchant writer. His life’s work is to probe the validity and scientific pretensions of the discipline.
The critiques are biting, all the more so for the real-world authority wielded by economists. That he is sometimes a provocative maverick adds to the appeal.
Machine Dreams argued implausibly (for its time) that economics had embraced robotic simulation. The emergence of AI shows how far ahead of its time it was.
A better read than most straight economics.
From Avner's list on the history of economic thought.
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