Sign-In
Cart
Understanding Economics: A work of science fiction
Paperback
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0645667218
ISBN13: 9780645667219
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc
Published: Nov 22 2022
Pages: 258
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.58 Width: 5.25 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780645667219
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc
Published: Nov 22 2022
Pages: 258
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.58 Width: 5.25 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Understanding Economics: A Work of Science Fiction by Dan Hicks is an accessible and thought-provoking book that makes economics relatable for a broader audience. By merging the worlds of economics and science fiction, Hicks achieves writing a text that is both enlightening and genuinely enjoyable to read.
- Leath Al Obaidi, The Society of Professional Economists The human economy might be the most complex thing in the known universe. It is comprised of millions or billions of self-directed human beings, their technologies, and institutions, each continuously acting and interacting within an already ridiculously complex natural world. To navigate this complexity, economists, like science fiction writers, must start with what they know and try and fill in the many gaps in their knowledge with calculated guesses, conjecture, and a little bit of fantasy. In fact, it is when we forget how complex the economy is, when we are confident without justification of the impact our changes will have - that's when we tend to really mess things up.
With the help of aliens, androids, Dr. Spock and Darth Vader, Understanding Economics: A work of science fiction takes an in depth look at the factors that make economics so difficult to understand and explain and, aware of these limitations, tries to explain them anyway.
THE FIGHT
It might not seem apparent as we sit quietly on the bus, do our taxes or wait patiently in line to order our coffee, but the foundation of the human economy is an organism whose ancestors have scavenged, fought, killed and died to enable us to come into existence. This organism, with all its fears and desires, strengths and weaknesses, remains at the centre of economics today.
FAITH
Without faith we are nothing - but not in a religious sense. Without faith in each other, in our institutions, our governments and our financial system we would literally have only a fraction of the wealth and comforts we enjoy today. We might sometimes fantasize about a post-apocalyptic world with no rules, where we're left to our own resources, but in reality, most of us wouldn't even survive.
THE MACHINES
Forget about the impending AI apocalypse, the machines rose up and took control a long time ago. Our institutions are a technology of our own making that control our lives and our economy in ways that that we have much less control over than we might like.
CHAOS & CONTROL
An economy is a precarious balance of chaos and control. When chaos reigns we lose the benefit of people working together to solve their problems. Excessive controls constrain the experimentation and variation through which an economy and its participants come up with new and highly effective solutions to its problems.
NO SUPERHEROES
There are no superheroes who can save us. There aren't even superheroes who can consistently determine right from wrong. What there is, if we're lucky, is a process that ensures that our system of government is subject to continuous change intended to benefit those who are being governed.
THE MATRIX
Our economic world exists within a virtual reality of money and finance which facilitates things that couldn't be done without them. But it also distorts reality, making it hard to distinguish between fact and fiction and smart, or not so smart economic decisions.
DEFAULT SETTINGS
Whatever freedom we may perceive we have to direct our economy, we are constrained by our physical, cultural and political realities as well as the predominant intellectual theories of our time. For good and bad, our economies are defined by these default settings.
BETTER REPLICANTS
Our understanding of economics is informed by complex theoretical models, but no matter how advanced these models might be, they are a long way from being able to replicate our incredibly complex economic reality.
With the help of aliens, androids, Dr. Spock and Darth Vader, Understanding Economics: A work of science fiction takes an in depth look at the factors that make economics so difficult to understand and explain and, aware of these limitations, tries to explain them anyway.
THE FIGHT
It might not seem apparent as we sit quietly on the bus, do our taxes or wait patiently in line to order our coffee, but the foundation of the human economy is an organism whose ancestors have scavenged, fought, killed and died to enable us to come into existence. This organism, with all its fears and desires, strengths and weaknesses, remains at the centre of economics today.
FAITH
Without faith we are nothing - but not in a religious sense. Without faith in each other, in our institutions, our governments and our financial system we would literally have only a fraction of the wealth and comforts we enjoy today. We might sometimes fantasize about a post-apocalyptic world with no rules, where we're left to our own resources, but in reality, most of us wouldn't even survive.
THE MACHINES
Forget about the impending AI apocalypse, the machines rose up and took control a long time ago. Our institutions are a technology of our own making that control our lives and our economy in ways that that we have much less control over than we might like.
CHAOS & CONTROL
An economy is a precarious balance of chaos and control. When chaos reigns we lose the benefit of people working together to solve their problems. Excessive controls constrain the experimentation and variation through which an economy and its participants come up with new and highly effective solutions to its problems.
NO SUPERHEROES
There are no superheroes who can save us. There aren't even superheroes who can consistently determine right from wrong. What there is, if we're lucky, is a process that ensures that our system of government is subject to continuous change intended to benefit those who are being governed.
THE MATRIX
Our economic world exists within a virtual reality of money and finance which facilitates things that couldn't be done without them. But it also distorts reality, making it hard to distinguish between fact and fiction and smart, or not so smart economic decisions.
DEFAULT SETTINGS
Whatever freedom we may perceive we have to direct our economy, we are constrained by our physical, cultural and political realities as well as the predominant intellectual theories of our time. For good and bad, our economies are defined by these default settings.
BETTER REPLICANTS
Our understanding of economics is informed by complex theoretical models, but no matter how advanced these models might be, they are a long way from being able to replicate our incredibly complex economic reality.
Also from
Hicks, Dan
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
Hicks, Dan
Paperback
$18.00
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
Hicks, Dan
Hardcover
$33.25
Also in
Economics
Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
From $12.99
Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949
Eastman, Lloyd E.
Paperback
$169.49
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Hardcover
From $19.99
Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
Mayyasi, Alex
Hosts of Npr's Planet Money
Hardcover
$26.99
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
Ahamed, Liaquat
Hardcover
$28.80
How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't)
Moore Phd, Joseph S.
Hardcover
$28.80
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work
Roth, Alvin E.
Hardcover
$31.50
Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future-Proofing of America
Bryant, John Hope
Hardcover
$26.60
What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Hardcover
$28.80
Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Usually Win--And American Men Don't (Yet)
Szymanski, Stefan
Kuper, Simon
Paperback
$19.79
The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History
Williamson, Vanessa S.
Hardcover
$30.40
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
$21.85
The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
Wu, Tim
Hardcover
From $17.99
Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
Gottlieb, Dylan
Hardcover
$30.40
Market Wizards: The Next Generation: The World's Top Young Traders Reveal How They Beat the Market
Schwager, Jack D.
Coyle, George F.
Hardcover
$33.25
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shatteredâ a Nation (Large Print Edition)
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
$35.15
House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
Baer, Justin
Hardcover
$29.25
The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream
Dickerson, A. Mechele
Paperback
$29.94
How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy
Keynes, Soumaya
Bown, Chad P.
Hardcover
$28.50
5 Steps to a 5: AP Microeconomics 2027: Practice AP Tests + AP Content Review + Digital Exams
Dodge, Eric R.
Paperback
$27.85
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Acemoglu, Daron
Robinson, James A.
Paperback
$23.75
Who Gets What -- And Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design
Roth, Alvin E.
Paperback
$17.10
Freakonomics Twentieth Anniversary Edition: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Dubner, Stephen J.
Levitt, Steven D.
Paperback
$18.99
It's on You: How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We're to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems
Chater, Nick
Loewenstein, George
Hardcover
$28.80
A History of the United States in Five Crashes: Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation
Nations, Scott
Paperback
$18.04
Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Alden, Lyn
Paperback
$22.79
The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now
Thaler, Richard H.
Imas, Alex
Hardcover
$28.50
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
Dalio, Ray
Hardcover
From $14.99
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier
Studwell, Joe
Hardcover
$28.80
Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to the Modern Era
Weldon, Duncan
Hardcover
$30.40
Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth--And How You Can Too
Ramsey, Dave
Hardcover
$30.39
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Marohn, Charles L., Jr.
Hardcover
$24.70
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
Duflo, Esther
Banerjee, Abhijit V.
Paperback
$18.99
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Ariely, Dan
Paperback
From $10.99
Financial Literacy for All: Disrupting Struggle, Advancing Financial Freedom, and Building a New American Middle Class
Bryant, John Hope
Paperback
$17.10
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
Roberts, Russ
Paperback
$16.15
The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Came to Believe a Dangerous Delusion
Jones, Christopher F.
Hardcover
$30.88
Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom /]Cby Grace Blakeley
Blakeley, Grace
Paperback
$18.99
Abundancia: Cómo Construimos Un Mundo Mejor Abundance (Spanish Edition)
Klein, Ezra
Thompson, Derek
Paperback
$20.89
The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821
Vague, Richard
Hardcover
$94.95
Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet
Collins, Chuck
Hardcover
$26.59
Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence
Poynter, Toni Sciarra
Navarro, Joe
Paperback
$18.04
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Levitt, Steven D.
Dubner, Stephen J.
Paperback
$18.04
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
Mattei, Clara E.
Paperback
$21.38
A Capitalist Manifesto: Understanding The Market Economy And Defending Liberty
Wolfram, Gary
Paperback
$18.00
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Paperback
$19.00
The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations
Bunel, Simon
Aghion, Philippe
Antonin, Céline
Paperback
$18.95
Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry
Redwine, Clarissa
Tan, Js
Hardcover
$26.55
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Johnson, Simon
Paperback
$20.89
The Mismeasurement of America: How Outdated Government Statistics Mask the Economic Struggle of Everyday Americans
Ludwig, Gene
Hardcover
From $17.99
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
Milanovic, Branko
Hardcover
$28.50
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Hazlitt, Henry
Paperback
$19.00
9 Hábitos Japoneses Que Cambiarán Tu Vida / 9 Japanese Habits That Will Change Your Life
Rodríguez, Andrea
Paperback
$18.00
The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism
Gramm, Phil
Boudreaux, Donald J.
Hardcover
$28.50
The World Order - Our Secret Rulers: A Study in the Hegemony of Parasitism
Mullins, Eustace
Paperback
$33.75
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Hardcover
$42.00
The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right)
Lynch, David J.
Hardcover
$30.40
Talking to My Daughter about the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works--And How It Fails
Varoufakis, Yanis
Paperback
$14.00
Small Startup Cities: How to Build a Thriving Startup Ecosystem in a Small City
Halaby, Dominique
Paperback
$17.99
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
Leonard, Christopher
Paperback
$18.99
Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930
Kobrin, Rebecca
Hardcover
$42.00
Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000-2000
Mokyr, Joel
Tabellini, Guido
Greif, Avner
Hardcover
$59.93
Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy
Slobodian, Quinn
Paperback
$18.99
Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohammed Bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East
Cole, Matthew
Hardcover
$28.50
The Wealth of Nations: The Economics Classic - A Selected Edition for the Contemporary Reader
Smith, Adam
Hardcover
$16.14
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition
Ferguson, Niall
Paperback
$19.95
A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come
Canal, Marc
Bradley, Chris
Leung, Nick
Paperback
$17.99
Great American Investments: A History of the Bold Initiatives That Shaped a Nation
Ellis, Charles D.
Hardcover
$28.50
The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics
Smialek, Jeanna
Hardcover
$30.40
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Reinhart, Carmen M.
Rogoff, Kenneth S.
Paperback
$22.75
Bitcoin Is for Everyone: Why Our Financial System Is Broken and Bitcoin Is the Solution
Brunell, Natalie
Paperback
$18.99
Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the Global Economy--And How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops Them
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
$14.99
The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America
Kahrl, Andrew W.
Paperback
$19.00
AP Microeconomics/Macroeconomics Premium, Eighth Edition: Prep Book with 4 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (2026)
Redelsheimer, James, M. a.
Musgrave, Frank, PH. D.
Kacapyr, Elia, PH. D.
Paperback
$21.84