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Would IOET Make Economics More Behavioral? 173

micro (individual) part, while assumptions regarding individuals were made
somewhat opaquely. In this chapter, as we shall see, the concept of individ-
uals as cyborgs or extended minds enable this debate to have a bottom-up ver-
sion. In other words, the modern version of the socialist calculation debate
needs to begin with the issue of the rationality of individuals.
The rest of this chapter is organized as follows. Section 10.2 provides a
review of the socialist calculation debate. Section 10.3 first presents the idea
of cyborgs, and then assesses the impact of IoE on the rationality of individ-
uals in economic theory. Concluding remarks follow in Section 10.4.

10.2 WALRASIAN AUCTIONEER AND UNMANNED
MARKETS
We have been through various episodes of industrial revolutions or, if
expressed in a less overwhelming way, technological innovations. They each
have their “dark side,” echoing well with what Joseph Schumpeter (1883–
1950) referred to as “creative destruction” (Schumpeter, 1942). Hence,
from the viewpoint of the history of economic analysis, if we wish to sym-
pathize with some of the critics, pessimists, or skeptics, we need to ask why
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this time is different.
This time is different because, unlike the past “industrial revolutions” or
“technological shocks,” the current AI revolution driven by the advance in
information and communication technology (ICT) is fundamental in the
Walrasian sense (Walras, 1874). Interestingly enough as Dickens worked
on one side of the Channel on his “Tale” his French counterpart in the other
city (Paris), Leon Walras (1834–1910), an economist, had just started his aca-
demic career and 15 years later published his own magnum opus, Elements of
Pure Economics (Walras, 1874). While this book has constantly been viewed
as a groundbreaking step in economic analysis (specifically, the use of math-
ematical analysis in economics), the society for which the mathematics in his
book operated has generally been ignored by those working in modern ICT

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Here we use the title of the book by Reinhart and Rogoff (2009). In their review of the financial
follies over more than eight centuries, we often encountered what Reinhart and Rogoff referred
to as the this-time-is-different syndrome. “The essence of the this-time-is-different syndrome is simple. It
is rooted in the firmly held belief that financial crises are things that happen to other people in other
countries at other times; crises do not happen to us, here and now. We are doing things better,
we are smarter, we have learned from past mistakes. The old rules of valuation no longer apply.
The current boom, unlike the many booms that preceded catastrophic collapses in the past (even in
our country), is built on sound fundamentals, structural reforms, technological innovation, and good
policy. Or so the story goes” (Ibid, p. 15).