Is knowledge a commodity?
by
villegas,
State: published,
created
Nov 15, 2014 08:47 PM
At the Menao event (part of the 2014 ICM ) in Seoul last August, Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta from Cambridge University, gave a very interesting lecture. He argued that knowledge is indeed a commodity.
His first slide includes the surprising list:
theorems, laws, social norms and practices, art and culture,
all examples of what he called "public knowledge", words I never expected to appear together in the same phrase.
He also described the Fields medal (which were going to be awarded the day after) and similar prizes as an "amazingly cheap way to produce knowledge".
Overall a remarkable and thought-provoking lecture.
