I enjoyed virtually all of SuperFreakonomics, Illustrated edition by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner. It was filled with interesting data-derived fascinating facts; the book was well worth the purchase price. As to things that were less than attractive to this reader, I found some of the features having to do with providing illustrations that took the publishing company effort, were unappealing to this reader; only the entire inserted illustration could be highlighted. There were several topics that held little interest to this reader that could have been left out or replaced with other material, but I didn’t write nor publish the book so it wasn’t my call. Some of the items of interest that made the book worth purchasing, reading and studying included: evidence that practice indeed makes perfect and that takes a particular type of practice and therefore to do lots of it one should truly do what you love. The authors write about many topics including the pollution caused by horses and attempts to solve the related manure problem. While not necessarily politically correct, the authors point out that women who during their pregnancies fast in accordance with their religious beliefs will have children who are “more likely to exhibit developmental aftereffects.” The authors demonstrate the difficulty in deciding which doctors are most talented by looking at various data collected including information about Emergency Rooms (ERs) and number of tests ordered. The authors also relates: “Tom Smith … Despite the mountain of negative evidence, chemotherapy seems to afford cancer patients their last, best hope to nurse what Smith … calls “the deep and abiding desire not to be dead.”
The age-adjusted mortality rate for cancer is essentially unchanged over the past half-century, at about 200 deaths per 100,000 people.” The authors go on to explain why. They also go on to write about the impact of TV on crime and say: “As it turns out, there is a stark difference in crime trends between cities that got TV early and those that got it late. … by 1970, violent crime was twice as high in the cities that got TV early relative to those that got it late.
So did the introduction of TV have any discernible effect on a given city’s crime rate? The answer seems to be yes, indeed.” Again, these are not conjectures nor hypotheses but results based upon data and while all research requires independent verification and validation, the results so far are quite fascinating. The authors relate experimental psychology experiments done with humans that become increasingly complicated and even of experiments using monkeys who are painstakingly trained over several months to use coins to purchase treats that they want. The authors in response to practical results offer this parenthetical insight: “(Economists are known to admire theoretical proofs; thus the old quip: Sure, it works in practice, but does it work in theory?)”
In one experiment: “in England, a psychology professor named Melissa Bateson surreptitiously ran an experiment in her own department’s break room. Customarily, faculty members paid for coffee and other drinks by dropping money into an “honesty box.” Each week, Bateson posted a new price list. The prices never changed, but the small photograph atop the list did. On odd weeks, there was a picture of flowers; on even weeks, a pair of human eyes. When the eyes were watching, Bateson’s colleagues left nearly three times as much money in the honesty box.” The authors related that: “People aren’t “good” or “bad.” People are people, and they respond to incentives. They can nearly always be manipulated—for good or ill—if only you find the right levers.” The authors provide data on food production, germs, hand washing, health care, polio, seat belts and child seats. Some of the information most readers will be familiar with but much is new or offered in a new context. The authors provide some innovative, perhaps highly cost effective ideas for reducing the intensity of Hurricanes. On a larger scale many will want to read and study what this book has to offer based on data related to Climate Change. The authors state: “A Newsweek article, citing a National Academy of Sciences report, warned that climate change “would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale.” Worse yet, “climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change or even to allay its effects.” Who in his or her right mind wouldn’t be scared of global warming? But that’s not what these scientists were talking about. These articles, published in the mid-1970s, were predicting the effects of global cooling.” They go on to say: “But the ways humans affect the climate aren’t always as obvious as they seem. … cows—as well as sheep and other cud-chewing animals called ruminants—are wicked polluters. Their exhalation and flatulence and belching and manure emit methane, which by one common measure is about twenty-five times more potent as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide released by cars (and, by the way, humans). The world’s ruminants are responsible for about 50 percent more greenhouse gas than the entire transportation sector.” The authors posit that: “FOR A VARIETY of reasons, global warming is a uniquely thorny problem. … First, climate scientists can’t run experiments.
Second, the science is extraordinarily complex. … The imprecision inherent in climate science means we don’t know with any certainty whether our current path will lead temperatures to rise two degrees or ten degrees.
But as most economists know, people are generally unwilling to spend a lot of money to avert a future problem, especially when its likelihood is so uncertain.” The authors more than introduce the problem, offer some POTENTIAL engineering solutions to the global warming/climate change challenge; in particular they begin by stating: “By the time it was done, Pinatubo had discharged more than 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. What effect did that have on the environment? As it turned out, the stratospheric haze of sulfur dioxide acted like a layer of sunscreen, reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth. For the next two years, as the haze was settling out, the earth cooled off by an average of nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit, or .5 degrees Celsius. A single volcanic eruption practically reversed, albeit temporarily, the cumulative global warming of the previous hundred years.” The company that is named IV for Intellectual Ventures is an invention company working on solutions and the book offers many of the proposed solutions and rough order of magnitude cost/benefit analysis for consideration. For those interested in Climate Change this part of the book is more than worth the price of the book.
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Very thoughtful & counterintuitive
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2018
It provides one of the best discussions on global warming I ever claim across, giving credence to the deniers. Their abilities to look at the mundane things from a different angle is really impressive.
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2018
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