Are We All Scientific Experts Now

Book review of Harry Collins book 'Are we all scientific experts now?

How fast should we innovate?

The role of speed in innovations needs to be explored more thoroughly. I advocate here that for innovations which rely on scarce materials, research into more abundant substitutes needs to be accelerated while a regulatory-driven extension of the product life should slow down the number of incremental innovations and reduce our overall footprint on scarce resources. Chemical elements need to be established as global commons whose overuse can be regulated if required. Part of the efficiency gains of innovations could be used for research to offset the ‘rebound effect’ and provide the public with a return on early infrastructure investments

Compressed Sensing - A New mode of Measurement

After introducing the concept of compressed sensing as a complementary measurement mode to the classical Shannon-Nyquist approach, I discuss some of the drivers, potential challenges and obstacles to its implementation. I end with a speculative attempt to embed compressed sensing as an enabling methodology within the emergence of data-driven discovery. As a consequence I predict the growth of non-nomological sciences where heuristic correlations will find applications but often bypass conventional pure basic and use-inspired basic research stages due to the lack of verifiable hypotheses

Buying Time – Using Nanotechnologies and Other Emerging Technologies For A Sustainable Future

Abstract: Science and emerging technologies should not be predominantly tasked with furnishing us with more sustainable societies. Continuous short-term technological bail outs without taking into account the longer socio-cultural incubation times required to transition to ‘weakly sustainable’ economies squander valuable resources and time. Emerging technologies need to be deployed strategically to buy time in order to have extended political, social and ethical discussions about the root-causes of unsustainable economies and minimize social disruptions on the path towards global sustainability. Keywords: Nanoscience; nanotechnology; expanded materials design space; dematerialization; sustainability; permanent resource crise

The Role of Incentive Design in Firms - Shaping Employee and Customer Behavior With Non-Monetary and Monetary Incentives

This dissertation aims at improving the understanding how firms can design non-monetary and monetary incentives to affect behavior of employees and customers. In three research projects, we investigate how the incentive design of firms affect employee performance in short-term and long-term employer-employee relations (Chapters 2 and 3) as well as customer buying behavior (Chapter 4). In all three research projects, we designed and ran experiments to identify the causal effect of different incentive mechanisms on human behavior. Our research shows that firms can influence employee and customer behavior with their incentive design choice. We find that both the actual provision and the perception of non-monetary and monetary incentives can stimulate individual behavior that benefits the outcomes of firms. The (perceived) combination of both incentive types also induces behavior that increases the output of firms in our settings. Moreover, we observe that individuals react heterogeneously to either incentive type and the combination of both. We also see that the performance effect of incentive schemes depends on whether or not individuals are repeatedly exposed to them and can react dynamically. As a result, when designing incentive schemes firms may consider the composition of their employee and customer groups and whether or not these groups are repeatedly exposed to them

Learning in Networks - An Experimental Study using Stationary Concepts

Our study analyzes theories of learning for strategic interactions in networks. Participants played two of the 2 x 2 games used by Selten and Chmura (2008) and in the comment by Brunner, Camerer and Goeree (2009). Every participant played against four neighbors and could choose a different strategy against each of them. The games were played in two network structures: a attice and a circle. We compare our results with the predictions of different theories (Nash equilibrium, quantal response equilibrium, action-sampling equilibrium, payoff-sampling equilibrium, and impulse balance equilibrium) and the experimental results of Selten and Chmura (2008). One result is that the majority of players choose the same strategy against each neighbor. As another result we observe an order of predictive success for the stationary concepts that is different from the order shown by Selten and Chmura. This result supports our view that learning in networks is different from learning in random matching.experimental economics, networks, learning

Learning in networks: An experimental study using stationary concepts

Our study analyzes theories of learning for strategic interactions in networks. Participants played two of the 2 x 2 games used by Selten and Chmura (2008) and in the comment by Brunner, Camerer and Goeree (2009). Every participant played against four neighbors and could choose a different strategy against each of them. The games were played in two network structures: a lattice and a circle. We compare our results with the predictions of different theories (Nash equilibrium, quantal response equilibrium, action-sampling equilibrium, payoff-sampling equilibrium, and impulse balance equilibrium) and the experimental results of Selten and Chmura (2008). One result is that the majority of players choose the same strategy against each neighbor. As another result we observe an order of predictive success for the stationary concepts that is different from the order shown by Selten and Chmura. This result supports our view that learning in networks is different from learning in random matching. --experimental economics,networks,learning