Klaas — “We’ve built a world that seems regular and…”

Source: Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters — Brian Klaas

Book page: klaas-fluke

From: Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters — Quotes

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We’ve built a world that seems regular and controllable, so long as we pass the right laws and enact the correct monetary policy. When we’re surprised by a social shock, the lesson people tend to learn is that we just need to work harder to control the world better. If only we had better laws, better regulation, better forecasting data, Black Swans might become a scourge of the past. That’s not true. The real lesson is that the modern world, like the locust swarm, is fundamentally uncontrollable and unpredictable. Our hubris deludes us. Modern society is a complex system, seemingly stable, teetering on the edge of chaos—until everything falls apart due to a small change, from the accidental to the infinitesimal.