Aaronson said he got the idea for the program several months ago in a discussion about the limits of human rationality.

FORBES: Your World View Doesn't Compute

As interpreted by the important Chicago school of economics, faith in human rationality is closely linked to an ideology in which it is unnecessary and even immoral to protect people against their choices.

WSJ: Best of the Web Today: The Other Obesity Problem

They were far too sophisticated for that. (Indeed, in some of his more recent work, Sargent has tried to incorporate more realistic definitions of human rationality.) But both Sargent and Sims are definitely on the side that says beauty - logical consistency - needs to come first.

BBC: The Nobel prize, and the ONS

These technologies have also powered an expansion of rationality and objectivity in human affairs.

WSJ: Steven Pinker: Why Violence Is Vanishing

Fromkin says there are eight "radical turns" that have brought us from the African forests of millions of years ago to where we are now, among them: becoming human, inventing civilization, developing a conscience and achieving rationality.

FORBES: Fact and Comment