Re: Re: Gregnews: US report proves EP lies

> This NEW BRANCH of science has experienced remarkable growth in recent

> years. 



> To fight such patents in Europe is to fight the progress of a new

> science in Europe.



Hmmm...



Econophysics is a very interesting branch of condensed matter physics ;-) and very respectable too: http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/P/cd/d15a/d1520.pdf but - as anyone who knows something about modern physics could tell you - however close the mathematical analogies it doesn't mean it /is/ thermodynamics:



> The movement and exchange of such goods is little different than

> the movement and exchange of energy in interacting particle systems. In

> both cases, thermodynamics ignores the microscopic interactions and focuses

> instead on macroscopic properties. It is not surprising then that

> physicists are successfully able to apply this physics to financial

> markets (indeed, Wall Street hires tons of physicists).



or that its applications are anything like those of mathematically analagous fields and it certainly does not follow that:



> a good way to promote the disclosure of new, useful applications of

> a science is with patents.



I think we should at least wait until the econophysical models themselves tell us that they ought to be patentable.