I came to a realization on this subject while visiting Las Vegas: Pragmatically, a maximally high trust society and a maximally low trust society permit the sam

I came to a realization on this subject while visiting Las Vegas: Pragmatically, a maximally high trust society and a maximally low trust society permit the same behavior patterns. In Las Vegas casinos, which are low trust and have high surveillance, one can comfortably leave tens of thousands of dollars or more on a gaming table while one goes to use the bathroom or whatever. In a hypothetical high trust low surveillance environment one could do the same. The difference is, we know how to engineer for low trust and high surveillance. We don't really know how to engineer for high trust and low surveillance. So our practical choices are to either live in a low trust low surveillance society and having to constrain ourselves as that requires, or to live in a low trust high surveillance society that simulates a much more pleasant high trust society.