Mandelbrot Suggests A Hunt For Financial Patterns

Phoe6 writes "Wired is carrying an Open Letter of Benoît Mandelbrot, the father of the fractal, to the wizards of Wall Street, calling on them to recognize a pattern in the finantial and economic trends in the world. Mandelbrot says, If we can map the human genome, why can't we map how a man loses his livelihood? If millions can contribute a few cycles of their PCs to the search for a signal from outer space, why can't they join a coordinated search for patterns in financial markets?" I'd like to see a debate between Mandelbrot and Friedrich Hayek.

Comments

Re:Random versus deterministic

[ryanmfw]

Maybe others have different opinions? Stop posting as an AC if you want anyone to take your opinions seriously. Stupid troll. Anyway, to add some on-topic* stuff here, I would have to agree with one of the earlier posters, once a model is made and followed, the market would change and the model would no longer fit. Maybe someone could find a model that if followed, would cause the market to change in a positive way. Who knows anyway. Besides what would a positive change in the market be? It's all subjective. *I've had posts before that were 8 levels deep in a series of insignificant posts that most people wouldn't read moderated off topic. So, just for my own sake here, I'm writing this.

Re:And what if we DID map it?

[AmericanInKiev]

I want to reiterate the question - who the hell modded this crap up? - can't we know?

How about removing their mods entirely and giving me my own version of slashdot with the ignorant modders filtered out?

If Slashdot allowed individuals to censor modders - it would not be infected by bored morons.

AIK