>      Today we have a quite different sociological situation going on.  A 
> lot of these people are fully practicing physicists, in physics departments, not
> switching to economics.  

Dear Barkley, 

Do you think the situation now going on with econophysics is substantially different from what Edward Lazear calls "economic imperialism"?  (Which is defined as "the extension of economics to topics that go beyond the classical scope of issues," such as political science, sociology, anthropology, law, social institutions and the family.)

And a second question: How would you compare the situation going on with econophysics and what has happened with the work of Tversky and Kahneman? That is, psychologists who, working with their professional tools, investigated classical economic topics; the findings of which have then been assimilated by some economists (e.g. Akerlof) into economic models. 

Michael Nuwer