focus and context, part V: choices and the collective (formation)
Friday, March 30th, 2007
Kenneth Arrow and George Bush – Arrow receives the National Medal of Science, 2004
A previous randform post dealt with collective knowledges and in particular certain basic knowledges which were assumed to be connected with evolution. In the post it was asserted that collective knowledge may -among others- be hidden in the subconscious and that design/marketing may be a mean to detect something of it.
In this series of posts I haven’t yet really adressed the question of HOW a collective knowledge or preference assumes shape, but sofar rather focused on potentially involved mechanisms (maybe to be continued). And in fact the formation of collective preferences (related: the question of formation of coherence and focus) is a very, very difficult – but interesting – issue and this post here is only a first (and almost historical) glimpse into this matter.