#3 Wootton, Mayr, David Hume, Adam Smith on Feedback Machines and Social Science

The self-regulating machine is not just a crucial step towards a whole series of more advanced technologies. It is the founding concept of modern social science: David Hume’s theory of the balance of trade and Adam Smith’s conception of the market depend on the concept of a feedback mechanism. There is an old debate about why the Greeks and the Romans f…