[FRIAM] on government

[glen]

Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of Pinker (et al)'s arguments that show dropping infant mortality, poverty, violent crime, etc. But there is a point to be made that our governments, as technologies, are making a difference ... at least in *some* measures. Of course, governments are just like the other technologies and are pushing us toward existential threats like authoritarianism and climate change.

On 8/28/24 14:26, steve smith wrote:
> 
>> There's no system of governance that hasn't been corrupted. They're all the worst forms of governance ever invented, except for the alternative of dealing with a group of self-selected fellow citizens under no system of governance whatsoever.
>>
>> -- rec --
> 
> And being a fan of James Scott (The Art of not Being Governed <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6477876-the-art-of-not-being-governed> and Against the Grain) I am inclined to respect this POV while on the other end, I also am quite the fan of Michael Levin's perspective on "what is life?" with all of it's spread across scale and across complexity and across species (in the broadest sense).
> 
> Until we might evolve from a slime-mold with psuedopods searching around and intruding/interpenetrating into oneanother seeking concentrated resources (like Russia's into Ukraine and now vice-versa, or Israel/Palestine/Lebanon/???).  Might we (collectively) become something more like a "proper" multicellular creature or a balanced, healthy ecosystem (or system of ecosystems)?
> 
> We have (only) been experimenting with large-scale self-organizing systems of humanity with lots of technological scaffolding (lithics/copper/bronze/iron/steel through antimatter, quantum dots, and nanotech, just to name a few?) and religio/socio/philosopho/politco linguistic technology for a handful (or two) of millenia, so it doesn't surprise me that we haven't wandered/mutated-selected our way into anything better than we have to date.
> 
> I am (very guardedly) hopeful that the acceleration of the latter (linguistic technology) in LLMs and other ML/AI (material technology) will give us the possibility of rushing this phase forward.  PInker might claim we have had material (and psycho-social-spiritual) advancement over the centuries and decades and maybe he is right in some sense...  but the leap-forward in collective self-governance/regulation/homeostasis we can all seem to imagine living under feels beyond our (heretofore?) grasp.
> 
> For better or worse, it feels to me that Kurzweil for all his nonsense in predicting an imminent singularity may be right... we will either self-organize in a Asimovian Foundation/Psychohistory galaxy-spanning culture (almost surely not) future or implode in a Mad Max (or grey-goo/planet-krypton) apocalypse.  Maybe even in my lifetime, almost assuredly in my children or grandchildren's?
> 


-- 
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