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Journal by khallow
I was trying to put together some musings I had about experimentation at the society level with an eye to eventually making society better, but suffered from serious writer's block. So here's what I have.
First, the observation that we can look at a society as a bunch of humans with infrastructure. This infrastructure appears at many levels: individual biology/psychology, culture, rules and trade, the traditional sort of infrastructure (energy generation, roads, emergency services, telecomms, internet), and education/knowledge.
Today, we bring a lot of interesting tools to the table for improving society. First, we have a better understanding and knowledge of the workings of society. Second, advancing technology allows us to do things that weren't possible before. A key one is things are becoming less scarce. We may even be on the verge of the post-scarcity society where basic human needs are "too cheap to meter".
Second, it seems a fine environmental for experimenting with a variety of possibilities that would be legally and culturally acceptable to a degree.
For example, we're already trying out non-traditional relationships like same sex marriage and internet discourse with considerable success.
I wish society was more open to economic/trade experimentation (like gig economy, high frequency trade (and other automated trade mechanisms), and cryptocurrency).
Finally, not much point to experimenting, if one doesn't pay attention to the results. For example, we have vast improvement in the human condition due to the present economic system (global trade, capitalism, plus widespread democracy), but I still see people pushing old narratives that ignore that. Similarly, the economic experiments I mentioned above all have resistance from sources that usually can't be bothered to find an actual problem (gig workers are "exploited", HFT is stealing pennies from grandma every time she trades, and cryptocurrencies are for tax evasion).
On that last point, it doesn't make sense to do experiments, if you can't perceive what works or not in those experiments.
First, the observation that we can look at a society as a bunch of humans with infrastructure. This infrastructure appears at many levels: individual biology/psychology, culture, rules and trade, the traditional sort of infrastructure (energy generation, roads, emergency services, telecomms, internet), and education/knowledge.
Today, we bring a lot of interesting tools to the table for improving society. First, we have a better understanding and knowledge of the workings of society. Second, advancing technology allows us to do things that weren't possible before. A key one is things are becoming less scarce. We may even be on the verge of the post-scarcity society where basic human needs are "too cheap to meter".
Second, it seems a fine environmental for experimenting with a variety of possibilities that would be legally and culturally acceptable to a degree.
For example, we're already trying out non-traditional relationships like same sex marriage and internet discourse with considerable success.
I wish society was more open to economic/trade experimentation (like gig economy, high frequency trade (and other automated trade mechanisms), and cryptocurrency).
Finally, not much point to experimenting, if one doesn't pay attention to the results. For example, we have vast improvement in the human condition due to the present economic system (global trade, capitalism, plus widespread democracy), but I still see people pushing old narratives that ignore that. Similarly, the economic experiments I mentioned above all have resistance from sources that usually can't be bothered to find an actual problem (gig workers are "exploited", HFT is stealing pennies from grandma every time she trades, and cryptocurrencies are for tax evasion).
On that last point, it doesn't make sense to do experiments, if you can't perceive what works or not in those experiments.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Do not use if foil seal is broken.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 24 2022, @03:54AM (10 children)
These are all ponzi schemes, all based on speculation, producing nothing actually useful to society in general.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 24 2022, @04:30AM (9 children)
Nope. That is not what a Ponzi scheme [wikipedia.org] is.
And speculation has its place since it's a common means of figuring out the future. As long as they're not using your money, I don't see the point of complaining about speculation. If they're wrong, then the market will take away their ability to speculate wrongly. It's a self-fixing problem.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 24 2022, @01:14PM (4 children)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 24 2022, @04:07PM (3 children)
(different AC)
Broaden that. Expansive Government and infrastructure can be considered Ponzi Schemes. The financial calculations are always reliant on a fallacious concept of non-inflationary growth. There's a reason many states can't meet public sector pension obligations or afford to maintain the roads without massively increasing the tax base through immigration. If the human condition is improved by a more affordable and higher standard of living -- we've just identified a major obstacle.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 24 2022, @04:51PM (2 children)
In the Bizzarro World it is simultaneously true that immigrants are here to steal your job and pay no taxes while also being shipped in by Soros to leach unemployment benefits and increase the tax base.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 24 2022, @05:15PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 24 2022, @05:30PM
It only seems bizarre to people that are too stupid to understand or (as in your case) willfully ignore the evidence. Let me give you a clue. [armstrongeconomics.com]
Look buddy, if you want to pay high real estate prices and high taxes to live among street-shitters then San-Francisco will welcome you with free* syringes!
* tax-payer funded
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 24 2022, @05:37PM (3 children)
Pedantry is your forte... Your stock market scams produce nothing of value outside of the scam and are nothing but a drain on real society that pays for all the "losses"... You just just wanna get rich quick
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 24 2022, @07:29PM (2 children)
Or detail oriented in other words.
That's why you should be a bit more detail oriented as well. There's no scam, drain on society, or get rich quick schemes here - rather the accusations of such. It's just hand waving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 24 2022, @08:06PM (1 child)
But, khallow is still a poor. Yellowstone contractors are very "detail oriented".
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 24 2022, @08:37PM
Who knew that working in Yellowstone wasn't the fast ticket to getting rich? Yes, my job is very detail oriented. But I like it and where I'm working. I think I'll probably move on a year or two, but it's a good place to work.