In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You by Cosma Shalizi on May 30, 2012 Attention conservation notice: Over 7800 words about optimal planning for a socialist economy and its intersection with computational complexity theory. This is about as relevant to the world around us as debating whether a devotee of the Olympian gods should approve of transgenic organisms. (Or: centaurs, yes or no?) Contains mathemat...

By Friedrich A. Hayek The Use of Knowledge in Society What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order? On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough. If we possess all the relevant information, if we can start out from a given system of preferences, and if we command complete knowledge of available means, the problem which remains is purely one of logic. That is, the answer to th...

Notes Hayek’s The Fatal Conceit The "micro-cosmos" in the "macro-cosmos". The idea of Socialism is at once grandiose and simple… We may say, in fact, that it is one of the most ambitious creations of the human spirit,… so magnificent, so daring, that it has rightly aroused the greatest admiration. If we wish to save the world from barbarism we have to refute Socialism, but we cannot thrust it carelessly aside. Ludwig von Mises How ...