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>More than any other profession, many of us - as software developers, mathematicians, scientists - have a better grasp of complex systems. And most of us on HN

>More than any other profession, many of us - as software developers, mathematicians, scientists - have a better grasp of complex systems. And most of us on HN have a healthy, deeply internalized sense of morality. I really hope some of us will branch out into politics or other power-positions in those institutions, and start knocking people's heads together. Having a good grasp of complex systems doesn't make one avoid the shortcomings that have created modern genocides and industrialized society, etc. In fact I'd argue that deep knowledge of complex systems makes a politician even more competent at causing harm on massive scales. Knowledge does not make one moral.

jajko 2y ago
No, but to state it has 0 positive effect is simply not true. Smarter, more knowledgeable people are much harder to manipulate via some trivial emotional tricks. Its not 100% shield, but sure as hell helps a lot. Look who is dying on russian's side in russian war - poor, remote and less educated part of russian society since they are so easy to manipulate - effectively considered disposable subhumans by russian leadershit. Also, smarter folks understand that in hyper-complex structure like our global society, or on smaller nation scale, how good and freedom is something that's rare and practically unique for our current times, and should be protected at (almost) any cost since its loss may not be easily reversible for generations. Simpler folks care only about their own situation, bigger concepts are an afterthought at best. Also, its much easier to spot manipulators and liars, typical populists these days really can't wrap their manipulation in some clever package that requires detailed analysis to unwrap, at least not most of them (and usually that's enough). When you can easily detect lies and twisting of truth you know who you deal with, you can assess both/multiple sides and weight on who is who much closer to actual truth. Morality doesn't become some fancy foreign inconvenient concept but understanding how things that go around come around, always, and how only so you can build strong free society with bright future. And so on.
- HideousKojima 2y ago
  >Smarter, more knowledgeable people are much harder to manipulate via some trivial emotional tricks. But also much more capable of manipulating others via the same sorts of tricks, that's my point.

jajko 2y ago

No, but to state it has 0 positive effect is simply not true. Smarter, more knowledgeable people are much harder to manipulate via some trivial emotional tricks. Its not 100% shield, but sure as hell helps a lot. Look who is dying on russian's side in russian war - poor, remote and less educated part of russian society since they are so easy to manipulate - effectively considered disposable subhumans by russian leadershit. Also, smarter folks understand that in hyper-complex structure like our global society, or on smaller nation scale, how good and freedom is something that's rare and practically unique for our current times, and should be protected at (almost) any cost since its loss may not be easily reversible for generations. Simpler folks care only about their own situation, bigger concepts are an afterthought at best. Also, its much easier to spot manipulators and liars, typical populists these days really can't wrap their manipulation in some clever package that requires detailed analysis to unwrap, at least not most of them (and usually that's enough). When you can easily detect lies and twisting of truth you know who you deal with, you can assess both/multiple sides and weight on who is who much closer to actual truth. Morality doesn't become some fancy foreign inconvenient concept but understanding how things that go around come around, always, and how only so you can build strong free society with bright future. And so on.

HideousKojima 2y ago
>Smarter, more knowledgeable people are much harder to manipulate via some trivial emotional tricks. But also much more capable of manipulating others via the same sorts of tricks, that's my point.