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Would IOET Make Economics More Behavioral? 177

(2002) suggested that ideas pertaining to machines can be regarded as a
thread connecting a myriad of branches of economics developing side by
side with neoclassical economics after World War II that include computa-
tional economics, artificial economies, autonomous agents, and experimen-
tal economics; hence, cyborg science is closely associated with the history of
economic analysis. Earlier we discussed the socialist calculation debate and
the idea of the unmanned market, already pointing to cybernetics. Our
revisit here will enable us to more clearly see why IoE will inevitably get
involved in the continuation of this debate, while in different forms and with
different rhetoric, primarily because its “formal body” has already been
placed in the very heart of economics.
Indeed, if one reflects upon the history of behavioral economics and is
sufficiently open-minded to include those great novels that deal with the
complexity (or perplexity) and uncertainty of human nature, the core issue
remains human decision making under limited intelligence, cognitive capa-
bility or bounded rationality, and, very recently, emotional influences
(W€alde & Moors, 2017). With the advancement in AI and the ubiquitous
IoE, it is feasible now to enhance the human’s cognitive functionality with
various cyborg-like extensions, using not just external (wearable) devices,
such as smart phones or Google glasses, but also internal (implant) devices,
such as the extended mind (Clark & Chalmers, 1998; Rosenfeld & Wong,
2017) and also the shared (networked) powerful “mind” (IoE). It then seems
relevant to ask whether the increasingly enhanced cyborgs will become
more like homo economicus.
In the following, we propose two contrasting possibilities in response to
Thaler’s prediction in light of IoE, which will be distinguished by different
names: one is called trend reversal (Section 10.3.2) and the other trend sustain-
ing (Section 10.3.3). As for the former, Thaler’s prediction will be over-
thrown, whereas for the latter it will be fulfilled.

10.3.2 Trend Reversal
The main argument that IoE could support trend reversal lies in the possi-
bility that IoE can facilitate human decision making or even automate it.
However, that enhancement or automation has already existed for a long
while. What is new is that, through IoE, this decision-supporting function
can be further enhanced not just at the individual level (optimization), but
further up to a social level (interaction and coordination) by means of