Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906–1994)

I gave this book 100 pages to wow me, and it did no such thing. I thought that with the title Georgescu-Roegen would go right into the crux of his argument, but he is still explaining the background. For one thing, he has mentioned entropy and shows a phenomenal understanding of a lot of different subjects. I don't know why he needs to denigrate the works of so many great minds, but this is his modus operandi so to speak. Georgescu-Roegen has a passionate thing going on for Aristotle and keeps mentioning Arithmomorphic, which my spell-checker assures me is actually a word.

Anyway, I gave it a chance, but this book just made me angry. Perhaps I have some sort of cognitive dissonance going on with the subject matter, but he just keeps dancing around the topic. Get to the point. Thankfully I got it from the Library so I didn't have to pay anything for it. That is all I have to say.… (more)

The author is one of the few economists to understand biology, and one of the few biologists who understands economics. Uniquely, he finds the physicists' law of entropy to be a central theme.[3, 140, 201] The key is the irreversibility -- older, colder, darker, slower -- of all these systems.[133] Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen was a Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist who remains influential today for this 1971 magnum opus in which he offers proof that all natural resources are irreversibly degraded when put to use in economic activity.

"The entropy of the physical universe increases constantly because there is a continuous and irrevocable qualitative degradation of order into chaos. The entropic nature of the economic process, which degrades natural resources and pollutes the environment, constitutes the present danger. The earth is entropically winding down naturally, and economic advance is accelerating the process. Man must learn to ration the meager resources he has so profligately squandered if he is to survive in the long run when the entropic degradation of the sun will be the crucial factor, 'for surprising as it may seem, the entire stock of natural resources is not worth more than a few days of sunlight'." - Library Journal.

This work draws together mathematics, biology, physics, social sciences and economic theory to support his creative but well-grounded conclusions. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen understands that ultimately economics is political: He quotes F. A. Hayek to say that "the principal problem in understanding the actions of men is to understand how they think--how their minds work". [364] And we have not [yet] developed a measuring instrument for political will -- a "politiscope".[364]

This work is fundamental to the study of humankind and our propensities. It provides tools for learning how to do that so there will be no more "forgotten" people. Scientists are the "peace army" necessary to turn toward this outcome. And with the Sun dimming toward a 4.5 billion year extinction, we don't have a moment to lose.… (more)