> The eventual plan is to refactor to a simpler system and get rid of the duct tape. Yeah, we're on the same page. I think the critical thing with the softwar

> The eventual plan is to refactor to a simpler system and get rid of the duct tape. Yeah, we're on the same page. I think the critical thing with the software/systems-analogy is that it's far easier for us to understand these technologies, and more over, the technologies generally lend them selves to reproducible experiments. You can collect 'lessons learned' and do experiments, and based on that knowledge, refactor. It's much harder in politics for the reasons you mentioned. The whole reason we have 'free' markets is that we lack the knowledge that would be required to efficiently run a command-economy, so we let the market decide, and apply duck-tape where appropriate. Same goes with democracy: we lack the knowledge to build a benevolent dictator which maximizes its people's happiness. So I guess democracy + duck-tape is the best we can do, for now.