What Would You Do if You Were a Benevolent Dictator?

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If you were a benevolent dictator of Britain or the world and there was no personal recourse to your decision what is one thing you would do to improve human and planetary futures? I think somehow reducing the consumption of everybody down to a bare minimum. Of course for some that means increasing and so some form of rationing or quotas or something like that, but it's too dictatorial they just can't impose solutions from above. So I would abolish the dictator and hope for the best I would resign my position if I was in a small way but I have a dictator I would change around the world how people say models and switch it to models in exactly your voiceI think that would be an

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