The full debate on which the last assignment was based is from the Boston review and available here.
This is a cut-paste from:
The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and Unpredictable Future
Thomas Homer-Dixon
PhD Political Science, MIT
I don't know if anyone should read this book … he writes ...
"The people who work in political science are, for the most part, well-intentioned and smart." *but* "They have largely failed to produce any really valuable knowledge."
"Economics certainly deserves to be regarded as the queen of social sciences; unlike the others, it has unquestionably produced useful knowledge on a wide range of issues that affect our daily lives."
… Thanks but some of us have always known that!
Of course he is partly wrong (and I hope he is completely wrong) since we know from an earlier post that uneducated poor kids can use computers without being taught how to do so. I continue to admire Negroponte's persistence.