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Free markets, liberal democracies, and so forth are just ways of distributing decision-making and control — that may be not optimal (e.g., they could be sometim
by xpl 2y ago
Free markets, liberal democracies, and so forth are just ways of distributing decision-making and control — that may be not optimal (e.g., they could be sometimes painfully slow compared to autocracies), but are good enough.
It all can be seen as a resilient distributed computer made of humans.
The USSR/communism failed not because it is inherently evil and soul-crushing, but mainly because it lacked the all-permeating, high-bandwidth information system that could survey and control all aspects of society in a centralized way (i.e., cyber-totalitarianism). But with all the new 21st-century technology and AI, it possibly could have succeeded...
We're living in interesting times.
- candiodari 2y ago> The USSR/communism failed not because it is inherently evil and soul-crushing, but mainly because it lacked the all-permeating This seems to be the hope of Marxists today. But if you talk to people who actually lived in the USSR, no, it wasn't lack of information. It was like in the show "Chernobyl". It was protecting decision makers, right up to the point of sending firefighters LITERALLY INTO a fissioning nuclear reactor in hopes of putting it out and blaming it on an electrical malfunction to protect the careers of the plant director and chief scientist.