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December 30, 2009
March 14, 2014
UNINTENDED
My usual assumption:
We need to improve our collective
intelligence, the ability for
society as a whole to converge on an
understanding of difficult issues
and to solve difficult problems.
Though understanding isn't
always a prerequisite for
solution.
If you don't *have* brains, then
you need to get by without them. ("If you can't think once")
How do you do that?
(Emergent, evolutionary order.
Markets. Delegate to experts. Etc.)
March 14, 2014
Work with that idea:
seeking solution without understanding.
One approach is the elitest ruler scenario:
if the people are really that stupid, we'll
tell them something they want to hear,
while we go about behind the scenes actually
working on the problems.
This is an unstable, unworkable set-up
for multiple reasons, by various different
standards. The reasons are pretty familiar
and yet the idea keeps coming back, so I'll
list a few:
The elites may begin working in their own
interests rather than the general interest.
The people are likely to suspect the elites
are doing so, and refuse to cooperate for long.
A more subtle one: the idea that the elites
can keep two stories straight in their heads
overestimates them: "believing your own lies"
is a common syndrome.
Other difficulties involve:
o In-fighting between factions of the elites.
o The competence of the elites:
o evaluation and selection mechanisms
Another approach: seek a common belief system
that satisifies mass psychological needs without
interfering with necessary operations-- e.g
religion.
For example, many have definite problems with
living with uncertainty-- a belief in
"providence" might work to calm fears and
allow you to continue operating without
perfect knowledge.
And the general method I'm using here
is to catalog and summarize the known
approaches before working on new.
Is it really all that likely to be
productive?
It's perhaps more likely to promote the
feeling that this is all old ground, and
why bother looking here again.
An actual new idea may very well be
just a slight variation of the old,
But is focusing on the old at all likely
to inspire you to try variations of it?
Okay you're tried this before, but
have you tried *every* form of it?
You know there are problems there,
do you know there's no fix for them?
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