David C. Krakauer > Quotes

“The value (“fitness”) of a given combination of building blocks often cannot be predicted by a summing up of values assigned to the component blocks. This nonlinearity (commonly called epistasis in genetics) leads to co-adapted sets of blocks (alleles) that serve to bias sampling and add additional layers to the hierarchy.”
― David C. Krakauer, Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: The Evolving Idea of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, 1984–2019

“Modern cognitive psychology is almost dominated by emphasis on irrationality in the formation of beliefs and expectations, and experiment after experiment has confirmed this.”
― David C. Krakauer, Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: The Evolving Idea of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, 1984–2019

“We immediately notice that many markets are being assumed that do not, in fact, exist.”
― David C. Krakauer, Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: The Evolving Idea of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, 1984–2019

“Vaclav Smil writes: “The diffusion and complexification of human societies have led to a large array of environmental changes that have transformed this planet during the past 5 ka, and particularly during the past 100 years, more rapidly than any other biogenic process in the planet’s history” [22, p. 240].”
― David C. Krakauer, History, Big History, & Metahistory

“But the problem is even worse.”
― David C. Krakauer, Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: The Evolving Idea of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, 1984–2019