About this episode

Greg LaBlanc interviews J. Doyne Farmer about the intersection of complexity science and economics, discussing various themes including market dynamics and simulation methods.

J. Doyne Farmer is a Professor of Complex Systems Science at Oxford University, Hedge-Fund Founder, and author of the new book, Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World. Greg and Doyne discuss why complexity science has not displaced mainstream economics. Doyne argues that economics is intellectually conservative and overly committed to closed-form math, with behavioral challenges and the 2008 crisis highlighting endogenous dynamics. He also recounts working to beat roulette using physics, his work on chaos (sensitive dependence, strange attractors), and using simulation as a core complex-systems method. When they shift to the topic of finance, he describes “market ecology,” specialists with noisy skill, and why even uninformed trades have market impact. Doyne notes bounded rationality’s rise with modern computing and data, critiques systemic regulation, and describes industry-leading simulation work, including COVID UK economic-policy modeling and energy-transition/climate models that emphasize data-driven forecasts and policy nudges. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

People in this episode

Host: Greg LaBlanc

Guest: J. Doyne Farmer

Topics covered

• complexity science
• economics
• finance
• chaos theory
• market ecology
• simulation
• data-driven forecasts

Keywords

• complex systems
• economics
• chaos
• market impact
• bounded rationality
• COVID modeling
• energy transition

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Oxford University

Books & works: Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World

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