So on the object level, if I ever happen to have a baby who needs parenteral nutrition, is there some nutty religious belief I can claim to have that will let me put fish oil in it or a way to demand transfer to Boston Children’s Hospital or something?
More generally, could we fight all such problems of this class by claiming to believe in Moloch, as a vengeful god? Then ask for religious exemption from all coordination problems where exemption is legally possible.
Why not organize a religion to spite its god, rather than worship it?
EDIT: The concrete benefits could come from a single commandment to defy Moloch whenever possible. All shoes must be velcro and exempt from dress codes, doctors must be specialists when available, and you can sue for religious discrimination if someone makes hiring decisions based on autodidact/community college attendance over Ivy League, etc.
I know the IRS’s definition of a religion is deliberately fuzzy, and allows anyone with a “sincerely held belief” to call their thing a religion. If other religious exemptions are similarly open, then it would be hilarious way to fight Moloch. After all, coordination problems are a real, empirically verifiable thing, which economists at least sincerely believe in.
If the Flying Spaghetti Monster is considered a valid belief in some legal contexts, then so should Moloch. And, personifications of natural forces were some of the first historical gods, so there’s a precedent. Egregores may not be physical things, but believing in the processes they are names for should qualify if people believing in separate “Non-Overlapping Magisteria” qualifies.
There’s a big gap between “should work” and “works in practice”, though. Anyone know how big this particular gap is?
It would give you a weapon in some contexts, like the workplace; if anyone made fun of your shoes, you could claim religious discrimination. That might be evil though.
My predcition is that having a sincerely held belief to ‘defy Moloch whenever possible’ would result in suffering the harm caused by being the first actors to switch from the worse Nash equilibrium.
Let’s talk about how timed-collective-action-threshold-conditional-commitment.
I think you should make this a top post. Scientology abused the religious laws for evil gains and won handsomely, so abusing those for good causes might be possible, too.
So on the object level, if I ever happen to have a baby who needs parenteral nutrition, is there some nutty religious belief I can claim to have that will let me put fish oil in it or a way to demand transfer to Boston Children’s Hospital or something?
More generally, could we fight all such problems of this class by claiming to believe in Moloch, as a vengeful god? Then ask for religious exemption from all coordination problems where exemption is legally possible.
Why not organize a religion to spite its god, rather than worship it?
EDIT: The concrete benefits could come from a single commandment to defy Moloch whenever possible. All shoes must be velcro and exempt from dress codes, doctors must be specialists when available, and you can sue for religious discrimination if someone makes hiring decisions based on autodidact/community college attendance over Ivy League, etc.
I know the IRS’s definition of a religion is deliberately fuzzy, and allows anyone with a “sincerely held belief” to call their thing a religion. If other religious exemptions are similarly open, then it would be hilarious way to fight Moloch. After all, coordination problems are a real, empirically verifiable thing, which economists at least sincerely believe in.
If the Flying Spaghetti Monster is considered a valid belief in some legal contexts, then so should Moloch. And, personifications of natural forces were some of the first historical gods, so there’s a precedent. Egregores may not be physical things, but believing in the processes they are names for should qualify if people believing in separate “Non-Overlapping Magisteria” qualifies.
There’s a big gap between “should work” and “works in practice”, though. Anyone know how big this particular gap is?
Well, the velcro-shoes solution is mostly a societal expectation than a legal expectation, so that wouldn’t be solved.
It would give you a weapon in some contexts, like the workplace; if anyone made fun of your shoes, you could claim religious discrimination. That might be evil though.
The shoes I’m currently wearing have neither velcro nor shoelaces.
They use elastic bands and manage to look like normal shoes that nobody will notice as anything besides normal black leather shoes.
My predcition is that having a sincerely held belief to ‘defy Moloch whenever possible’ would result in suffering the harm caused by being the first actors to switch from the worse Nash equilibrium.
Let’s talk about how timed-collective-action-threshold-conditional-commitment.
That sounds crazy, but I like it. I expect that even if it doesn’t actually fix things, it will at least give some attention to the problem.
I think you should make this a top post. Scientology abused the religious laws for evil gains and won handsomely, so abusing those for good causes might be possible, too.
Looks like there is a detailed Wiki page about this.