Rate this book

Knowledge And Power: The Information Theory Of Capitalism And How It Is Revolutionizing Our World (2013)

by George Gilder(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1621570274 (ISBN13: 9781621570271)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Regnery Publishing

review 1: Gilder's 1981 international bestseller "Wealth and Poverty" advanced a practical and moral case for supply-side economics and made him President Reagan's most quoted living author. "Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How It is Revolutionizing Our World" reformulates economics in terms of the information theory of Alan Turing and Claude Shannon.Distinctly right wing, alternately provocative and incendiary, sometimes inspired, "Knowledge and Power" argues that the Keynesian and Austrian economists are both wrong about certain certain aspects of economics, that the key to a growing economy is "surprisal", or the chance introduction of new information into the economic system. With examples such as Ford's Model T or Jobs' iPod, Gilder argues that it... more is entrepreneurial innovation, rather than consumer demand, that drives economic health. Thus, according to Gilder, any demand-side economic model is doomed to failure.Whether one agrees with Gilder or not, his book is worth reading for its fresh approach to a tired subject.
review 2: This book had a promising start. Gilder's premise is that entrepreneurial creativity is responsible for 80% of all growth in a functioning capitalist economy. However he doesn't do the work of proving that theory, which would have been interesting. Instead he tries to shoehorn the whole of economics into information theory. The carrier is the government, regulatory, and social structure that carries the information, namely the creation of surprises (i.e. entrepreneurial creativity). That goes exactly nowhere because, unlike information theory applied to traditional communications, you can't put hard and fast figures on the content and noise components that information theory work with. Without hard numbers it's no more than an interesting analogy. Not very useful.Then Gilder goes off on a complete rant about everything green or liberal. He's a total climate change denier, and completely down on alternate energy. Interesting topics, but I don't want to read his unsupported opinions. I want analysis, facts, figures, argument, not just a tirade. Mr. Gilder loses all credibility when he says that nuclear energy is the cheapest available energy today, costing only $.02 per kwh. That figure is pure fantasy. Energy cost over the life cycle of a new nuclear plant in America would be 20 to 40 times that much. This book was a waste of time and money. less

Download links for: Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World

Advertising