In this episode, Gabor talks with Dan Davies about how accountability vanishes in our increasingly complex institutions. Why do massive systems routinely make disastrous decisions, and why does no one seem responsible?
Dan Davies draws on his experience in banking regulation and equity research, along with cybernetics and information theory, to explain how feedback loops collapse and decisions emerge from a “black box” that no one owns. They explore how complexity breeds unaccountability, why managers evade responsibility, and what it would take to restore real accountability in an age dominated by industrialized, algorithmic decision-making.
Further Reading & Connection
Book: The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions – and How the World Lost Its Mind — Profile Books
Dan’s Substack - Back of Mind: Essays on economics, systems, and the crises of modern civilisation → backofmind.substack.com
