I'd prefer to preface this discussion by pouring your favorite drink into you, whatever that might happen to be; for this kind of discussion I'm partial to Irish coffee, myself, but it's too hot for that at the moment. Iced sangria, perhaps, or tea if you prefer.
I disagree with your rebuttal, here: Pointing out that a system has a decay property that must be dealt with for that system to continue longer-term is not the same logic, or even the same point, as claiming that the existence of entropy is valid and sufficient motive for despair.
If we assume a benevolent dictator, or even (as Vetinari) a functional and functionally-beneficient chaotic-neutral one, the status 'dictator' creates a succession problem, in that a dictator can subvert whatever successor-selection mechanism may have been devised in the original system.
Your comment about the future is spot-on, and relates to the larger question that I'm still working on in your original post.
If I interpret your list of possible fear-cases correctly, it boils down to "Do *something*", with a separate inferred point of "do something effective and useful", which is much harder, and also harder to *tell*. ("How do I *know* this is useful and effective?") Is that right?
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branchandroot
Cut the fourth monkey some slack.
Date: 2016-08-17 03:23 pm (UTC)I'd prefer to preface this discussion by pouring your favorite drink into you, whatever that might happen to be; for this kind of discussion I'm partial to Irish coffee, myself, but it's too hot for that at the moment. Iced sangria, perhaps, or tea if you prefer.
I disagree with your rebuttal, here: Pointing out that a system has a decay property that must be dealt with for that system to continue longer-term is not the same logic, or even the same point, as claiming that the existence of entropy is valid and sufficient motive for despair.
If we assume a benevolent dictator, or even (as Vetinari) a functional and functionally-beneficient chaotic-neutral one, the status 'dictator' creates a succession problem, in that a dictator can subvert whatever successor-selection mechanism may have been devised in the original system.
Your comment about the future is spot-on, and relates to the larger question that I'm still working on in your original post.
If I interpret your list of possible fear-cases correctly, it boils down to "Do *something*", with a separate inferred point of "do something effective and useful", which is much harder, and also harder to *tell*. ("How do I *know* this is useful and effective?") Is that right?
Back to stewing on the main point,
Joel