ESTB01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Invisible Hand, Exponential Growth, Human Behavior
7 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
13th century mystic rumi utilized the metaphor of an elephant in order to illustrate the idea that we need multiple perspectives to understand the object of study. An elephant is placed in a completely dark room and is examined by those who have never seen it before. Each person feels a small part of the elephant and interprets the whole of the elephant using their intellectual background. It is only by combining all of the individual interpretations that a clear and valid understanding is obtained. Two ways to understand the earth: *: we can look into the past to see how things have changed, we can look for other earths. Comparative contextualization means that we can best understand our earth if put in the context of other earths. Comparing the terrestrial planets of earth, venus and mars is a complex task. Conditions must allow for liquid surface water. The orbit, tilt, and rotation of the planet determine seasonality.
