Re: Lessig on antitrust and government regulation

[Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com>]

At 12:48 PM -0800 1/7/98, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Lessig is the special master appointed by the judge in the Microsoft
>consent decree case. He once wrote:
>
>>Whether a regulation is
>>rational turns on the facts, and what counts as "the facts" turns on the
>>theory that animates inquiry into the facts.
>
>Wow.
>
>How do we know what theory is the right one, and when we should change it?

Theories are normally only changed when (1) it is obvious they no longer
reflect observed reality, and (2) they can't be patched anymore.  :-)

The Ptolemaic theory of the universe is the classic example.


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