Sean Carroll

I think at a down-to-earth level, there are reasons why growth and indeed a little amount of inflation are useful. Just to give you one very, very easy to understand one, is helpful if I want to—different things. Maybe I want to buy a house, but maybe I also want to start a company, right? For various reasons, I might want to take out a loan.

I think at a down-to-earth level, there are reasons why growth and indeed a little amount of inflation are useful. Just to give you one very, very easy to understand one, is helpful if I want to—different things. Maybe I want to buy a house, but maybe I also want to start a company, right? For various reasons, I might want to take out a loan.

That is borrowing so that I have money right now against the promise of a future payment. A tiny bit of inflation will ease the burden of paying back that loan in the future and therefore make me more likely to take out the loan and therefore, in a well-functioning economy, makes it a little bit easier to make progress and have everything be active and churning and new things going on.

That is borrowing so that I have money right now against the promise of a future payment. A tiny bit of inflation will ease the burden of paying back that loan in the future and therefore make me more likely to take out the loan and therefore, in a well-functioning economy, makes it a little bit easier to make progress and have everything be active and churning and new things going on.

Now, of course, this is a tricky thing because you don't want too much inflation. That means that everyone's savings disappear. So there's a very, very fine line to be drawn there. And of course, getting it right is what economists talk about all the time. I do think that...

Now, of course, this is a tricky thing because you don't want too much inflation. That means that everyone's savings disappear. So there's a very, very fine line to be drawn there. And of course, getting it right is what economists talk about all the time. I do think that...

It's just wrong to think that things would be easier if we fixed everything at a constant value of GDP and just tried to keep it completely stable like that. It's hard to make it stable. For one thing, there are fluctuations up and down. So if the overall trend is growing, then the downward fluctuation is relatively benign.

It's just wrong to think that things would be easier if we fixed everything at a constant value of GDP and just tried to keep it completely stable like that. It's hard to make it stable. For one thing, there are fluctuations up and down. So if the overall trend is growing, then the downward fluctuation is relatively benign.

Whereas if the overall trend is flat, then a downward fluctuation can be pretty devastating. So maybe there are good reasons why you don't want that, and maybe that's why it's not a significant focus.

Whereas if the overall trend is flat, then a downward fluctuation can be pretty devastating. So maybe there are good reasons why you don't want that, and maybe that's why it's not a significant focus.

Zach McKinney says, inspired by your episode with Eddie Pross, if you were to consider and model functional democracy as a dynamic kinetically stable system, then what are the inputs or conditions that you would hypothesize are needed to maintain kinetic stability?

Zach McKinney says, inspired by your episode with Eddie Pross, if you were to consider and model functional democracy as a dynamic kinetically stable system, then what are the inputs or conditions that you would hypothesize are needed to maintain kinetic stability?

So I'm answering this question because I have no idea what the answer is, but I think it's a super important question in some version or another. So I'm not – I don't understand – the specific idea of dynamic kinetic stability well enough to say that that's the right kind of model to use. I mean, it's a little bit specific to chemistry, honestly.

So I'm answering this question because I have no idea what the answer is, but I think it's a super important question in some version or another. So I'm not – I don't understand – the specific idea of dynamic kinetic stability well enough to say that that's the right kind of model to use. I mean, it's a little bit specific to chemistry, honestly.

But the more general idea, if you remove the word kinetic and just say, you know, dynamic stability, that's a very general idea. Lots of things are sort of stable in the aggregate, stable at a macro level, like a human being is certainly mostly stable, right? Like I don't change my configuration dramatically from moment to moment, but only because I take in fuel from the outside and then...

But the more general idea, if you remove the word kinetic and just say, you know, dynamic stability, that's a very general idea. Lots of things are sort of stable in the aggregate, stable at a macro level, like a human being is certainly mostly stable, right? Like I don't change my configuration dramatically from moment to moment, but only because I take in fuel from the outside and then...

throw away entropy and energy back to the world. The biosphere as a whole does that. Waterfalls, you know, the great red spot on Jupiter, many different things. So you want a functioning democracy, or any kind of functioning country for that matter, to be something like that, right?

throw away entropy and energy back to the world. The biosphere as a whole does that. Waterfalls, you know, the great red spot on Jupiter, many different things. So you want a functioning democracy, or any kind of functioning country for that matter, to be something like that, right?

I mean, the individual human beings are allowed to move, but the overall shape of the country maintains some coherence. and you also want it to be stable. So, I mean, just like the economics question above, you want perturbations to fluctuate rather than to grow, right?

I mean, the individual human beings are allowed to move, but the overall shape of the country maintains some coherence. and you also want it to be stable. So, I mean, just like the economics question above, you want perturbations to fluctuate rather than to grow, right?