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# Introduction: Brian Cohen

A bit of my background, studied Physics as an undergrad, with a lot of computational modeling and simulation. I questioned of redundancy in the computational physics workflow (prototyping in a dynamic language and then doing a performance implementation), and that lead to investigating other programming languages. At some point I discovered Haskell, started looking under the hood, and then learned more about Types and Programming Languages, starting with taking a class in Software Foundations. That lead to investigating formal logic, and trying to reconcile the the parallels between types, logic, and physics lead me to category theory.

At the same time, I've been paying attention to the world around me: social, political, ecological and economic systems, and would be looking to try my hand at applying math to these problems (possibly via dynamical systems theory and related ideas) in the hopes of finding new sustainable solutions. This has also lead to studying the history of economic thought. As a software developer, I'm also investigating how dependently-typed programming can also help. As of now, I'm independently studying all this, so I'm very open to collaboration.

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1.

Welcome to the forums Brian.

You said you are interested in dependently-typed programming. What languages are you looking at?

I am also a fan of the history of economic thought (and intellectual history in general). Anything in particular that are you are reading?

Comment Source:Welcome to the forums Brian. You said you are interested in dependently-typed programming. What languages are you looking at? I am also a fan of the history of economic thought (and intellectual history in general). Anything in particular that are you are reading?
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2.

For dependently-typed programming, I've been tinkering with Idris recently as it's the friendliest language, was thinking of writing a parser for to turn Quantities into something like Qalculate. I intend to look more into ATS as it's seemingly feature-packed. In the past, I've used Coq for the Software Foundations class, and also given Agda a spin.

As for economics, I've been looking into the work of Von Neumann, Nash, Arrow and Debreau, and their methodology of using fixed-point theorems (Lawvere shows how they are non-constructive in Conceptual Mathematics), as well as the resultant divides it created (such as the spat between Solow and Robinson within Keynesian economics). I've done a little looking into the broader history of how money has been used over time (Debt: The First 5000 years has much on this), how Fibonacci introduced double-entry bookkeeping and Hindu-Arabic decimal notation to the Florentines, enabling the Medicis to create the first international banks, through to Keynes and the failures of the Bretton-Woods system in the 20th century (both The General Theory of Interest, Employment, and Money and Modern Political Economics). Also have started looking into David Ellerman's work now, such as his work on property theory at the suggestion of Keith.

Comment Source:For dependently-typed programming, I've been tinkering with [Idris](https://www.idris-lang.org/) recently as it's the friendliest language, was thinking of writing a parser for to turn [Quantities](https://github.com/timjb/quantities) into something like [Qalculate](http://qalculate.github.io/). I intend to look more into [ATS](http://www.ats-lang.org/) as it's seemingly feature-packed. In the past, I've used Coq for the Software Foundations class, and also given Agda a spin. As for economics, I've been looking into the work of Von Neumann, Nash, Arrow and Debreau, and their methodology of using fixed-point theorems (Lawvere shows how they are non-constructive in *Conceptual Mathematics*), as well as the resultant divides it created (such as the spat between Solow and Robinson within Keynesian economics). I've done a little looking into the broader history of how money has been used over time (*Debt: The First 5000 years* has much on this), how Fibonacci introduced double-entry bookkeeping and Hindu-Arabic decimal notation to the Florentines, enabling the Medicis to create the first international banks, through to Keynes and the failures of the Bretton-Woods system in the 20th century (both *The General Theory of Interest, Employment, and Money* and *Modern Political Economics*). Also have started looking into David Ellerman's work now, such as his work on property theory at the suggestion of Keith.
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3.

Simon Wren-Lewis deals with real political economy in his wonderful macroeconomics blog. His work developing a UK Treasury DSGE model with a consistent core and "empirical" completions is fascinating.

Comment Source:Simon Wren-Lewis deals with real political economy in his wonderful macroeconomics [blog](https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/). His work developing a UK Treasury DSGE model with a consistent core and "empirical" completions is fascinating.
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4.

Welcome, Brian Cohen! You're reading a lot of interesting stuff... stuff I wish I had time to try.

Recently there's been a rebellion against Nash equilibria in favor of 'correlated equilibria', which are more computable but also, some claim, a more realistic model of rational behavior. The first paper is this:

• Robert Aumann, Correlated equilibrium as an expression of Bayesian rationality, Econometrica 55 (1987), 1-18.

A quick intro to the main idea is here:

Here's something I wrote, with a link to a nice article:

Comment Source:Welcome, Brian Cohen! You're reading a lot of interesting stuff... stuff I wish I had time to try. Recently there's been a rebellion against Nash equilibria in favor of 'correlated equilibria', which are more computable but also, some claim, a more realistic model of rational behavior. The first paper is this: * Robert Aumann, Correlated equilibrium as an expression of Bayesian rationality, _Econometrica_ **55** (1987), 1-18. A quick intro to the main idea is here: * Wikipedia, [Correlated equilibrium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlated_equilibrium). Here's something I wrote, with a link to a nice article: * John Baez, [Correlated equilibria in game theory](https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/correlated-equilibria-in-game-theory/), _Azimuth_, 24 August 2017. I wish I had more time to think about this: I have a feeling it could be important!