At some point (maybe from the beginning?), humans forgot the raison d’etre of capitalism — encourage people to work towards the greater good in a scalable way. It’s a huge system that has fallen prey to Goodhart’s Law, where a bunch of Powergamers have switched from “I should produce the best product in order to sell the most” to “I should alter the customer‘s mindset so that they want my (maybe inferior) product”. And the tragedy of the commons has forced everyone to follow suit.
Not only that, the system that could stand in the way — the government — has been captured by the same forces. A picture of an old man wearing mittens that was shared millions of times likely had a larger impact on how people vote than actual action or policy.
I don’t know what to do about these things. I’ve tried hard to escape the forces myself, but it’s a constant battle to not be drawn back in. The thing I’d recommend to anyone else willing to try is to think of who your enemy is, and work hard to understand their viewpoint and how they came to it. For most people in the US, I imagine it’s the opposite political party. You’ll probably realize that theirs is built on sand — then turn that eye to yourself, and hopefully realize that your in-group is too.
Relatedly, I’ve been wondering lately how much of modern society is built totally on “feeling superior”. Superhero movies, political gotchas, the subreddits that make fun of people, the subreddits that boast your own team, 90% of the memes out there; All of these feel like they’re targeting almost the same human emotion — to feel superior or important (or like you belong to a group that is).
Random aside: If you like Sci-Fi, you should take a look at “Lady Of Mazes”. It’s the only post-scarcity book that feels weird enough to be even somewhat probable. And I don’t wanna spoil it, but there’s a large of the book that relates very closely to your post.
Not only that, the system that could stand in the way — the government — has been captured by the same forces.
Yep.
The USA Constitution was an attempt to human-align an egregore.
But it was done in third person, and it wasn’t mathematically perfect, so of course egregoric evolution found loopholes.
Random aside: If you like Sci-Fi, you should take a look at “Lady Of Mazes”. It’s the only post-scarcity book that feels weird enough to be even somewhat probable. And I don’t wanna spoil it, but there’s a large of the book that relates very closely to your post.
I buy that book from any used bookstore I find it in, and then give it to people who can think and who are working on the future. I’m not sure if this has actually has ever moved the needle, but… it probably doesn’t hurt?
The theme of “getting control of your media diet” is totally pervasive in the work.
One of the most haunting parts of it, for me, after all these years, is how the smartest things in the solar system take only the tiniest and rarest of sips of “open-ended information at all”, because they’re afraid of being hijacked by hostile inputs, which they can’t not ultimately be vulnerable to, if they retain their Turing Completeness… but they have to keep risking it sometimes if they want to not end up as pure navel gazers.
I ~entirely agree with you.
At some point (maybe from the beginning?), humans forgot the raison d’etre of capitalism — encourage people to work towards the greater good in a scalable way. It’s a huge system that has fallen prey to Goodhart’s Law, where a bunch of Powergamers have switched from “I should produce the best product in order to sell the most” to “I should alter the customer‘s mindset so that they want my (maybe inferior) product”. And the tragedy of the commons has forced everyone to follow suit.
Not only that, the system that could stand in the way — the government — has been captured by the same forces. A picture of an old man wearing mittens that was shared millions of times likely had a larger impact on how people vote than actual action or policy.
I don’t know what to do about these things. I’ve tried hard to escape the forces myself, but it’s a constant battle to not be drawn back in. The thing I’d recommend to anyone else willing to try is to think of who your enemy is, and work hard to understand their viewpoint and how they came to it. For most people in the US, I imagine it’s the opposite political party. You’ll probably realize that theirs is built on sand — then turn that eye to yourself, and hopefully realize that your in-group is too.
Relatedly, I’ve been wondering lately how much of modern society is built totally on “feeling superior”. Superhero movies, political gotchas, the subreddits that make fun of people, the subreddits that boast your own team, 90% of the memes out there; All of these feel like they’re targeting almost the same human emotion — to feel superior or important (or like you belong to a group that is).
Random aside: If you like Sci-Fi, you should take a look at “Lady Of Mazes”. It’s the only post-scarcity book that feels weird enough to be even somewhat probable. And I don’t wanna spoil it, but there’s a large of the book that relates very closely to your post.
Yep.
The USA Constitution was an attempt to human-align an egregore.
But it was done in third person, and it wasn’t mathematically perfect, so of course egregoric evolution found loopholes.
Thank you! By Karl Schroeder?
I second the recommendation of Lady of Mazes (by Karl Schroeder, yes).
I third the recommendation.
I buy that book from any used bookstore I find it in, and then give it to people who can think and who are working on the future. I’m not sure if this has actually has ever moved the needle, but… it probably doesn’t hurt?
The theme of “getting control of your media diet” is totally pervasive in the work.
One of the most haunting parts of it, for me, after all these years, is how the smartest things in the solar system take only the tiniest and rarest of sips of “open-ended information at all”, because they’re afraid of being hijacked by hostile inputs, which they can’t not ultimately be vulnerable to, if they retain their Turing Completeness… but they have to keep risking it sometimes if they want to not end up as pure navel gazers.