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I think this article touches on a very interesting philosophical paradox of human nature. It's hard to state pithily, but I'll try. We're all slaves to somethin

I think this article touches on a very interesting philosophical paradox of human nature. It's hard to state pithily, but I'll try. We're all slaves to something or someone (Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" comes to mind). There's no way to escape that... a well-functioning society is made up of laborers serving other people (if you disagree, you haven't made any money). So in a sense "freedom" comes from voluntary service.

lisper 10y ago
The escape mechanism from this generalized view of slavery is competition. Yes, you have to serve someone, but if you have a choice of who serve that gives you leverage, because if one master mistreats you, you can go serve a different one. But maintaining competition is not easy because there's a positive feedback effect: once an entity starts to accumulate disproportionate power, they can then use that power to effect political change that makes it harder -- or even impossible -- for others to compete. In network-based markets where the value of the product increases with the number of people using it, the positive feedback effect is even stronger. It's a hard problem, but crucially important.
- avivo 10y ago
  Why not cooperation? Competition lets a market — something not known to have human values — decide how you can serve. With cooperation, you work together with other humans and can decide together the best way to serve each other. Of course, scaling cooperation, and especially decision mechanisms is hard. Markets are great at scaling at least (well, until externalities crop up), but they definitely aren't the only solution! (especially in a world with realtime worldwide computer mediated collaboration systems)
  - TimTheTinker 10y ago
    Scaling cooperation is impossible because for a given person, it can only work within that person's trust network.
    - Retra 10y ago
      That would only imply that it is difficult, not impossible.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - TimTheTinker 10y ago
        Good point.
  - lisper 10y ago
    > Why not cooperation? Because of the prisoner's dilemma.
  - Joof 10y ago
    Solidarity my friend.

lisper 10y ago

The escape mechanism from this generalized view of slavery is competition. Yes, you have to serve someone, but if you have a choice of who serve that gives you leverage, because if one master mistreats you, you can go serve a different one. But maintaining competition is not easy because there's a positive feedback effect: once an entity starts to accumulate disproportionate power, they can then use that power to effect political change that makes it harder -- or even impossible -- for others to compete. In network-based markets where the value of the product increases with the number of people using it, the positive feedback effect is even stronger. It's a hard problem, but crucially important.

avivo 10y ago
Why not cooperation? Competition lets a market — something not known to have human values — decide how you can serve. With cooperation, you work together with other humans and can decide together the best way to serve each other. Of course, scaling cooperation, and especially decision mechanisms is hard. Markets are great at scaling at least (well, until externalities crop up), but they definitely aren't the only solution! (especially in a world with realtime worldwide computer mediated collaboration systems)
- TimTheTinker 10y ago
  Scaling cooperation is impossible because for a given person, it can only work within that person's trust network.
  - Retra 10y ago
    That would only imply that it is difficult, not impossible.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - TimTheTinker 10y ago
      Good point.
- lisper 10y ago
  > Why not cooperation? Because of the prisoner's dilemma.
- Joof 10y ago
  Solidarity my friend.