Two years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7409611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7409611 | 121 comments I remember it coming up :) I used to v

Two years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7409611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7409611 | 121 comments I remember it coming up :) I used to volunteer in an anarchist-led bookshop. "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" was one of the texts I was referred to upon starting in order to help me understand that one ought to spend a bit of time thinking about hierarchies (or the lack thereof) and their consequences. This is my take on the topic given some reflection. Like money, hierarchies are not intrinsically bad. Like money, hierarchies are a tool for getting shit done. Money can be abused. Why? Because greed. Because the will to power. We know what money is good for, it is an abstraction that facilitates exchange and trade. What are hierarchies good for? Coordinated action via a chain of command. Hierarchies can be abused. Same reasons. Because greed. Because the will to power. I've been thinking recently about a certain type of hierarchy where the stratification is highly ordered. Think military hierarchies. Each layer reports only to the one above. There is a strict chain of command. Orders must be followed without question. Because this special type of hierarchy emerges again and again (think about how we structure a very complex text even) I thought it must have a name. I couldn't find one so I'm suggesting isomerarchy. All from ancient Greek: we all know that iso means same, like isomorphic, isobar, and so on; meros is less familiar and means part or division, the study of parts and parthood is mereology[1]; finally, archon[2] means ruler from which we get monarch (literally rule by the one). Hence, isomerarchy. Funnily enough, both isomer[3] and merarch[4] are both existing concepts which rely on exactly this etymology. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mereology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mereology [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomer [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merarches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merarches