I have a strong, and possibly scary claim to make.
Social reality is *important*. Moreso, it *has gears*.
No, that’s not a strong enough phrasing.
Social reality has *physics*.
It is very hard for humans to understand them, since we exist at or near its metaphorical Planck scale. But, there are actual, discernible principles at work. This is why I use terms like “incentive slope” or “status gradient”—I’m trying to get people to see the socio-cultural order as a structure that can be manipulated. I’m trying to get people to see White with Blue’s eyes.
You have goals. You have VERY ADMIRABLE GOALS. But even if I disagreed adamantly with your goals, they’re your *goals*. They’re your values. I can notice that I vehemently disagree with them, and declare war on you, or I can notice that I adamantly agree with them, and offer alliance. (I think you’ve noticed which side of that I wound up falling on.)
That said, you also have claims about what procedures and heuristics achieve your goals and maximize your values. Those CANNOT, themselves, be values. They are how your values interface with reality, and reality has a physics. It is actually possible to be correct or incorrect about whether a particular procedure or heuristic, implemented in a particular environment, will lead to maximizing or satisficing a particular goal.
I claim that many of your status-oriented heuristics are really not serving you well. My evidence is basically 20+ years of attempting exactly those heuristics myself, and observing that they really didn’t serve me well. And I really wanted them to.
That said, I could be wrong. It might be that there’s technique and skill involved; it might even be that I was implementing a flawed version of those heuristics. That would be awesome, if it were true. So I’d love to be proven wrong.
But before either of us if proven wrong or right, we need to start studying the shape of social reality’s physics, and formulating deep, testable hypotheses about why various moves will or won’t work.
I have a strong, and possibly scary claim to make.
Social reality is *important*. Moreso, it *has gears*.
No, that’s not a strong enough phrasing.
Social reality has *physics*.
It is very hard for humans to understand them, since we exist at or near its metaphorical Planck scale. But, there are actual, discernible principles at work. This is why I use terms like “incentive slope” or “status gradient”—I’m trying to get people to see the socio-cultural order as a structure that can be manipulated. I’m trying to get people to see White with Blue’s eyes.
You have goals. You have VERY ADMIRABLE GOALS. But even if I disagreed adamantly with your goals, they’re your *goals*. They’re your values. I can notice that I vehemently disagree with them, and declare war on you, or I can notice that I adamantly agree with them, and offer alliance. (I think you’ve noticed which side of that I wound up falling on.)
That said, you also have claims about what procedures and heuristics achieve your goals and maximize your values. Those CANNOT, themselves, be values. They are how your values interface with reality, and reality has a physics. It is actually possible to be correct or incorrect about whether a particular procedure or heuristic, implemented in a particular environment, will lead to maximizing or satisficing a particular goal.
I claim that many of your status-oriented heuristics are really not serving you well. My evidence is basically 20+ years of attempting exactly those heuristics myself, and observing that they really didn’t serve me well. And I really wanted them to.
That said, I could be wrong. It might be that there’s technique and skill involved; it might even be that I was implementing a flawed version of those heuristics. That would be awesome, if it were true. So I’d love to be proven wrong.
But before either of us if proven wrong or right, we need to start studying the shape of social reality’s physics, and formulating deep, testable hypotheses about why various moves will or won’t work.
And I claim that that’s gonna be hard.
Loren ipsum