It seems like if you add evolution to the mix over time the worst abuses will be weeded out because they are no longer suitable as a lip-service performance but will make you vulnerable.
It seems we could derive a weak law of progress: Over time not the best systems will win but the worst will die out—raising the sanity water line from below.
The difference between “best systems win” and “worst systems lose” is only one of timeframe. The two differ in filter effectiveness per iteration on the way to equilibrium.
I think ‘best systems’ refers to those that would be best for their object-level purpose, e.g. delivering mail as efficiently as possible. (But too much efficiency would be literally terrible for the people that work there and at least a small number want to cheat anyways.)
You could also consider a more Darwinian interpretation of which are the ‘best systems’ – they would be the ones that receive the most resources but provide the minimum products or services demanded, i.e. produce the largest ‘internal profit’ – but survive indefinitely. (And for cheaters, these systems are paradises.)
But I think the key negative feedback explaining why immoral mazes mostly still work is more likely that other people really do care, to some degree, that their job gets done. Apparently, many DMV offices in the U.S. are much better than they had been in the past. And the systems themselves can screw up enough and ‘get themselves killed’, e.g. closed, disbanded, or broken-up; or individuals in the system can be directly punished, e.g. fined, imprisoned, executed. There’s a significant amount of outside pressure that can be brought to bear.
That’s probably also why it’s the insides of large hierarchies become the most dense immoral mazes. The leaders ‘on the surface’ are (relatively) public figures and thus default targets for punishment. Also, other immoral mazes probably depend on their work being done, at least for them! And the workers are in direct contact with whatever the relevant portion of object level reality there is with which to interact to do their jobs. At that level, there very much is a pronounced ‘but that’s (not) my job’ operating.
It seems like if you add evolution to the mix over time the worst abuses will be weeded out because they are no longer suitable as a lip-service performance but will make you vulnerable.
It seems we could derive a weak law of progress: Over time not the best systems will win but the worst will die out—raising the sanity water line from below.
The difference between “best systems win” and “worst systems lose” is only one of timeframe. The two differ in filter effectiveness per iteration on the way to equilibrium.
Why won’t the best systems win?
Maybe it’s more that the best systems need not win. They might, but that’s not guaranteed.
I think ‘best systems’ refers to those that would be best for their object-level purpose, e.g. delivering mail as efficiently as possible. (But too much efficiency would be literally terrible for the people that work there and at least a small number want to cheat anyways.)
You could also consider a more Darwinian interpretation of which are the ‘best systems’ – they would be the ones that receive the most resources but provide the minimum products or services demanded, i.e. produce the largest ‘internal profit’ – but survive indefinitely. (And for cheaters, these systems are paradises.)
But I think the key negative feedback explaining why immoral mazes mostly still work is more likely that other people really do care, to some degree, that their job gets done. Apparently, many DMV offices in the U.S. are much better than they had been in the past. And the systems themselves can screw up enough and ‘get themselves killed’, e.g. closed, disbanded, or broken-up; or individuals in the system can be directly punished, e.g. fined, imprisoned, executed. There’s a significant amount of outside pressure that can be brought to bear.
That’s probably also why it’s the insides of large hierarchies become the most dense immoral mazes. The leaders ‘on the surface’ are (relatively) public figures and thus default targets for punishment. Also, other immoral mazes probably depend on their work being done, at least for them! And the workers are in direct contact with whatever the relevant portion of object level reality there is with which to interact to do their jobs. At that level, there very much is a pronounced ‘but that’s (not) my job’ operating.