Articles
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2010-Now, World Finance
The Econoclast
Column on economics for World Finance magazine
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1 February 2022, Aeon
A softer science
Financial markets are entangled and uncertain. When will economists let go of physics envy to embrace the quantum revolution?
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24 April 2018, openDemocracy
Storm warnings
When it comes to prediction, the battle for scientific legitimacy is as old as the word forecast
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23 February 2018, Rebuilding Macroeconomics
Of Minds and Money
If the intention is to rebuild macroeconomics, the natural place to start is with the quantum, dualistic nature of both mind and money
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6 February 2018, openDemocracy
Criticism of economics isn't 'dangerous'. But a stubborn monoculture is
With Cahal Moran and John Rapley
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4 January 2018, Aeon
Economics is Quantum
Money and brains are both quantum phenomena - so it's not surprising that economics is overdue for a quantum revolution
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5 December 2017, Significance magazine, The Royal Statistical Society
Big money's big mistake
Extract from The Money Formula, written with Paul Wilmott
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October 2017, Newsweek Japan (English version)
Why economists can't predict the future
Cover article for Newsweek Japan
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Winter 2017, Foresight
Commentary on "Changing the Paradigm for Business Forecasting"
Response to article by Michael Gilliland
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February 2016, World Economics Association Newsletter, Volume 6, Issue 1
The Five Stages of Economic Grief (Stage 3)
Review of Dani Rodrik's Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science
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September 2015, Adbusters 121
The true value of money
What would a revolution of economics look like?
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August 2015, Bitcoin Magazine
A Quantum Theory of Money and Value
Why cybercurrencies need a new theory of money. Also available in French and Spanish. See related research paper at SSRN.
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Winter 2014, Foresight
The Beauty of Forecasting
Are forecasters swayed by the beauty of equations?
Published as a chapter in Business Forecasting: Practical Problems and Solutions, by Michael Gilliland, Len Tashman, and Udo Sglavo (Wiley, 2015).
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June 2014, The New Economy
Behavioural economics
Neoclassical economics is flawed; it values neatness over reality. Behavioural economics offers a new scientific framework and tools for understanding data.
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The Institute of Ideas, No. 4, Fall 2013
Kruszac krysztalowe sfery (Shattering the crystal spheres)
Article for Poland's Instytut Obywatelski (Civic Institute)
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Winter 2013, Foresight
Review of Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't
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November 2012, Huffington Post
Truth or Beauty
Science and the power of aesthetics.
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November 2012, Strike! magazine
F*ckonomics
Article for inaugural F*cked issue of Strike! magazine. Graphic by Ralph Steadman. Also available in Spanish.
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October 2012, Books magazine
L'économie est malade de ses chiffres
Extract from Le Crépuscule de l'Homo Economicus (The Twilight of Homo Economicus).
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March 2011, Adbusters 94
A new economics
Extract from Economyths. Section reprinted November 2011 in Adbusters 98, and in Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics by Lasn and Adbusters (2012). Also available in Spanish, Portuguese, and audio versions.
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March 2011, Books magazine
De l'impossibilité de prévoir
French translation of a Literary Review of Canada review of Megadisasters: The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe by Florin Diacu.
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February 2011, Foresight
Review: This Time Is Different
Review of This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff
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January 2010, Literary Review of Canada
Blind oracles
Researchers have developed models to predict everything from earthquakes to pandemics. The trouble is, they don't work. A review of Megadisasters: The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe by Florin Diacu.
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July 2009, Adbusters
Post-Pythagorean economics
Modern economics is based on a Pythagorean paradigm. Article first published in 2006, reprinted 2009. Also available in Spanish translation.
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April 2009, Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting
Review: Adam Gordon's Future Savvy
Review of Adam Gordon's book Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions, Manage Uncertainty, and Profit from Change.
Selected research publications
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Can We Predict the Middle-Term Future?
In Michael Bess, Diana Walsh Pasulka (eds.), Human, Transhuman, Posthuman: Emerging Technologies and the Boundaries of Homo Sapiens, Macmillan Reference USA, 2018. -
A Quantum Theory of Money and Value, Part 2: The Uncertainty Principle
Economic Thought, 6 (2), 14-26, 2017Shows how the quantum properties of money make the economy fundamentally unpredictable.
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A Quantum Theory of Money and Value
Economic Thought, 5 (2), 19-28, 2016Proposes a new theory of money, inspired by non-Newtonian physics, and applies it to the example of the emergence of cybercurrencies.
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Systems Biology Approaches to Cancer Drug Development. C. Snell, D. Orrell, E. Fernandez, C. Chassagnole and D. Fell
In A. Cesario, F. Marcus (eds.), Cancer Systems Biology, Bioinformatics and Medicine, Springer, 2011. -
Commentary: In some ways the situation is even worse. D. Orrell
Foresight, 19, 16-17, 2010Responds to Adam Gordon's article in issue 19 of Foresight.
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Using predictive mathematical models to optimise the scheduling of anti-cancer drugs. D. Orrell and E. Fernandez.
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Technology, 59-62, June 2010Predicting the best schedules for drug combination treatments.
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Systems economics: Overcoming the pitfalls of forecasting models via a multidisciplinary approach. D. Orrell and P. McSharry.
International Journal of Forecasting, 25, 734-43, 2009 (abstract)Special issue on "Decision Making and Planning Under Low Levels of Predictability." Discusses the problems faced in predicting complex systems ranging from the human body to the economy, and how some of the methodologies of systems biology can be applied to economics.
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Reply to commentaries. D. Orrell and P. McSharry.
Foresight, 14, pg. 39, 2009Reply to commentaries by Roy Batchelor, Paul Goodwin and Robert Fildes on "A systems approach to forecasting".
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A systems approach to forecasting. D. Orrell and P. McSharry.
Foresight, 14, 25-30, 2009Discusses new predictive tools for complex systems such as the economy.
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Dual feedback loops in GAL regulon suppress cellular heterogeneity in yeast. S. Ramsey, J.J. Smith, D. Orrell, M. Marelli, T.W. Petersen, P. de Atauri, H. Bolouri, J.D. Aitchison.
Nature Genetics, 38, 1082-1087, 2006 (abstract)Presents experimental results which explore the role of feedback loops in a genetic network.
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Feedback control of stochastic noise in the yeast galactose utilization pathway. D. Orrell, S. Ramsey, M. Marelli, J.J. Smith, T.W. Petersen, P. de Atauri, J.D. Aitchison, H. Bolouri.
Physica D, 217, 64-76, 2006Gives a technique for determining the sources of noise in a genetic network – i.e. the reactions which contribute most to fluctuations in individual proteins – and applies it to the galactose utilization pathway in yeast.
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A method to estimate stochastic noise in large genetic regulatory networks. D. Orrell, S. Ramsey, P. de Atauri, and H. Bolouri.
Bioinformatics, 21, 208-217, 2005.Describes a fast way to estimate fluctuations in genetic networks, without doing the detailed stochastic simulations. Based on the same techniques used to analyse error growth in weather models.
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Estimating error growth and shadow behavior in nonlinear dynamical systems. D. Orrell
Int. J. Bifurcat. Chaos., 15 (10), 3265-3280, 2005.Analyses the growth of prediction errors. Includes applications to biology and weather forecasting.
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Filtering chaos: A technique to estimate dynamical and observational noise in nonlinear systems. D. Orrell
Int. J. Bifurcat. Chaos.,15 (1), 99-107, 2005.Prediction error is due to observational error, and model error. This paper shows how the model drift can be used to separate the two.
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Ensemble forecasting in a system with model error. D. Orrell
J. Atmos. Sci., 62 (5), 1652-1659, 2005Shows how ensemble forecasts are adversely affected by model error in a simple system, and discusses the implications for weather forecasts. See also this unpublished earlier version which includes a test for ensemble error.
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Dizzy: Stochastic simulation of large-scale genetic regulatory networks. S. Ramsey, D. Orrell, and H. Bolouri.
J. Bioinformatics Comput. Biol., 3 (2), 1-21, 2005A computational tool developed at the Institute for Systems Biology.
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Control of internal and external noise in genetic regulatory networks. D. Orrell and H. Bolouri.
J. Theor. Biol., 230, 301-312, 2004.Uses techniques from nonlinear dynamics to show how feedback loops and other features can reduce stochastic fluctuations in genetic networks.
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Evolution of "design principles" in biology and engineering. P. de Atauri, D. Orrell, S. Ramsey, H. Bolouri.
IEE Syst. Biol., 1, 28-40, 2004.Presents a detailed mathematical model of the galactose utilization pathway in yeast, and discusses the roles of various network features.
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Model error and predictability over different timescales in the Lorenz '96 systems. D. Orrell.
J. Atmos. Sci., 60, 2219-2228, 2003.Explores the connection between short, medium and long-range predictions for a "toy" weather model.
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The spectral bifurcation diagram: Visualizing bifurcations in high-dimensional systems. D. Orrell and L. Smith.
Int. J. Bifurcat. Chaos, 13, 3015-3027, 2003.A method to visualize the dynamics of nonlinear systems using harmonics.
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Role of the metric in forecast error growth: how chaotic is the weather? D. Orrell.
Tellus, 54A, 350-362, 2002.Shows that the apparent sensitivity to initial condition of weather models is largely an artefact of the measuring technique.
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Model error in weather forecasting. D. Orrell, L. Smith, J. Barkmeijer, and T. Palmer.
Nonlinear Proc. Geoph., 9, 357-371, 2001.Argues that weather forecast error is due mostly to model error, rather than the butterfly effect. See also No more butterfly effect, a transcript of a 2003 radio show by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the role of chaos in weather forecasting.
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Modelling nonlinear dynamical systems: chaos, error, and uncertainty. D. Orrell.
D. Phil. Thesis, Oxford University, 2001.
More
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Gaia Theory
A brief history of the theory as developed by James Lovelock and others
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Post-Pythagorean science and economics
Our Pythagorean heritage, and how it is being overturned by the new sciences
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Steppenpuppy
A play