Do You Suspect the Hawk Moth Effect Is Larger Than the Butterfly Effect?

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In your book, you discuss the idea of optimal climate and how this has been used by economists. Can you unpack that a little bit? I was going to go for the moth effect, but it sounded really boring. So I looked up and actually there's a whole family of hawk moths. And they're from the death said hawk moth, which is probably the most famous one,. Which has a sort of skull on its abdomen. The hawks are more camouflaged than the pictures of the butterfly effect with a really pretty snazzy butterfly.

On this episode, Dr. Erica Thompson joins Nate to unpack her recent book Escape From Model Land. Erica explores the pitfalls of conventional science models and the opportunities by which models can augment our imagination and collective understanding. What is a model, and how do our worldviews shape the way they’re made - and conversely, how do they shape our worldviews? How can we rethink and bring creativity into something as scientific as modeling to create maps of the future that are both more accurate and - most importantly - more helpful to planning responses?

About Eric Thompson:

Dr Erica Thompson is a Senior Policy Fellow at the LSE Data Science Institute, where she works on a broad programme of theoretical and practical research about mathematical models, their use, interpretation and social context. She recently authored Escape From Model Land (Basic Books, 2022) which explores the opportunities and challenges of augmenting our imagination about the future with mathematical tools.

For Show Notes and More visit https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/55-erica-thompson