Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts

of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org

where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast, and find links to

another information related to today's conversation. Our email address is maleaddycontalk.org. We'd

love to hear from you. Today is May 2nd, 2011, and my guest is William Byers of Concordia

University. His latest book is The Blind Spot, Science and the Crisis of Uncertainty. William

Welcome to Econ Talk. Thanks Russ. Thanks for inviting me.

So what is The Blind Spot? What is The Blind Spot of Science? What do you mean by it?

Well, I guess it is the notion that models or mathematics or theories captures reality

completely, and that it's sort of an absolute accurate picture of what's going on, and

that in its most general. And I go on to talk about the nature of our rational consciousness

if you will. This idea that it can, in fact, provide us with information, which is, I'm

not saying the information is not useful, but the idea that it provides information which

is absolute, objective, and will never be changed, that is The Blind Spot for me.

And of course, that is the way I think a lot of lay people and some scientists and social

scientists think about their disciplines, right? We just push forward, and we eliminate

ignorance, and light up the darkness as we move along, and it's just a matter of time

before we figure everything out. And you're pursuing a, you're suggesting that's a little

bit incorrect. Well, I myself think it's simplistic. You know, even in the book I draw this analogy

of the one that you mentioned that we think that science proceeds as though you're exploring

some new territory, and you just sort of conquer one bit of territory, and you move on

to the next. I claim that actually you never totally conquer any territory. You can always

...