“Indeed, our Earth’s Westphalian concept of sovereign states is the main thing propping up Somalia and North Korea.”
Sure it is. It hasn’t got anything to do with nukes/quagmire. I remember the Westphalian concept of sovereignty propping up Iraq in the spring of ’03. How we laughed and laughed. Oh, Westphalia, you dog! I particularly enjoyed the part when Eliezer suggested that what Somalia needs is more Ethiopias.
There’s a severe paucity of imagination in this post, or maybe empathy is the word I’m looking for. This planet doesn’t fail Eliezer’s space opera, it fails people.
Can someone tell me when going into the basement and solving the math problem has made “things turn out all right”? What I’m trying to point out is that SMARTS AREN’T SUFFICIENT. There’s always a political framework around those smarts, and it directs them to ill or to good. There’s far too little attention paid to this on the site.
“Of course the camel could also have three or more humps, and it’s quite easy to imagine Earths that are failing much worse than this, epic failed Earths ruled by the high-tech heirs of Genghis Khan or the Catholic Church.”
I would again submit that the relative rapacity and tyranny of our contemporary overlords is a matter of perspective.
“It’s a cheap pleasure to wax moralistic about failures of global coordination.”
I agree! I’d prefer to wax moralistic about the horrors of global coordination. Before we get to friendly AI we’d better get a grip on friendly I.
“Indeed, our Earth’s Westphalian concept of sovereign states is the main thing propping up Somalia and North Korea.”
Sure it is. It hasn’t got anything to do with nukes/quagmire. I remember the Westphalian concept of sovereignty propping up Iraq in the spring of ’03. How we laughed and laughed. Oh, Westphalia, you dog! I particularly enjoyed the part when Eliezer suggested that what Somalia needs is more Ethiopias.
There’s a severe paucity of imagination in this post, or maybe empathy is the word I’m looking for. This planet doesn’t fail Eliezer’s space opera, it fails people.
Can someone tell me when going into the basement and solving the math problem has made “things turn out all right”? What I’m trying to point out is that SMARTS AREN’T SUFFICIENT. There’s always a political framework around those smarts, and it directs them to ill or to good. There’s far too little attention paid to this on the site.
“Of course the camel could also have three or more humps, and it’s quite easy to imagine Earths that are failing much worse than this, epic failed Earths ruled by the high-tech heirs of Genghis Khan or the Catholic Church.”
I would again submit that the relative rapacity and tyranny of our contemporary overlords is a matter of perspective.
“It’s a cheap pleasure to wax moralistic about failures of global coordination.”
I agree! I’d prefer to wax moralistic about the horrors of global coordination. Before we get to friendly AI we’d better get a grip on friendly I.
The “More Right” parody site is long overdue.
This comment would be better if it were less emotional and stuck to serious, constructive criticisms.