[FRIAM] 5 agencies compromised

[jon zingale]

Marcus' description reminds me of stalk formation in slime moulds (*wink* to
Nick). It is the image of individuals motivated to fashion themselves into a
structural component, one that acts as an administrative *ice-nine*,
management as *grey goo*. Further, he imagines these *altruists* (those
willing to be the body) as being predisposed to select for the
consensus-oriented over the unfriendly. I appreciate his insight.

At the moment, I am listening to a DW documentary on inequality, how wealth
becomes power[1]. The documentary mentions a paradigm shift in finance away
from labour and towards investment, and mentions that very few in the world
can profitably take part in this economic rebirth. What the shift indicates,
to my mostly ignorant ear, is a recognition that we are leaving a stage in
the world where resources are available and now the future will go to
whoever can hold assets. This piece of the stalk formation model is either
missing or latent in Marcus' description. It seems important to me to ask
why we see this behaviour and in such abundance (the behaviour of those so
strongly inclined to be the body that they are willing to contribute to the
death of an institutions function). I speculate that it is worth considering
whether or not perceived scarcity (resources, wealth, liberty to do
otherwise) is a significant driver of this stalk formation mechanism. If so,
then my hope is that there are ways to frame the problem such that there are
actions to solve it.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFIxi7BiScI&ab_channel=DWDocumentary



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