I really enjoyed this and strongly agree with many of your insights (such as the importance of mindsets) but it seems you are just trying to wave away problems.
First, I agree with the "trenders" and "exponentials”. The world has gotten incomparably better and could soon get better even faster. The value of the "doomers" is that things can fall apart, catastrophically. Progress has been real, could be real going forward, but is neither guaranteed nor, frankly, all that likely.
Second, I agree that mindsets and how we frame our problems and how the world works are essential to progress. Important here is your insight on positive vs negative sum worldviews.
Third, I agree that coordination and cooperation are essential. History is full of technological gains which have been squandered in negative sum conflicts.
Where I am scratching my head though is on your list of coordination problems. For example, politics doesn’t just require us to agree to legislate good policies, it first requires us to discover what good policies are, and then agree on these, considering our different goals, values and contexts. The point is that you and I and 8 billion other people probably don’t agree, and talking about global consciousness does nothing to change that.
On inequality, the problem isn’t in allocating resources more equally, it is allocating them efficiently, effectively and fairly so that people are incentivized to contribute to the solutions with appropriate safety nets. Cooperation is an extremely tricky problem, and it requires both solving the dilemma of cooperation and the knowledge problem of coordination. IOW, we need to discover what to do, and we need to do it in ways which doesn’t encourage free riding, exploitation and domination.
Thank you! I’m not sure I’m trying to wave anything away. All of these problems are wickedly hard, proven by the fact that our institutions are struggling to tackle them at scale. But I do agree that the START depends on a foundation of cooperation. It can’t be any other way. That’s how we find shared values. And you can only find shared values if you have a theory of mind of your fellow humans. It’s simple to diagnose cancer, but wickedly hard to treat it.
Love the McGilchrist... but DEI, lol. There is nothing more left hemisphere than refusing to see people as people and instead lotting them into categories of race or sex.
Love this one, thanks Tom!
Thanks for reading, and for taking the time to write!
Just super, Tom.
Thanks Mark, grateful for you!
Really appreciate the audio too. Thank you.
Recorded it on my phone this week, so I think it actually sounds a little better than usual!
I really enjoyed this and strongly agree with many of your insights (such as the importance of mindsets) but it seems you are just trying to wave away problems.
First, I agree with the "trenders" and "exponentials”. The world has gotten incomparably better and could soon get better even faster. The value of the "doomers" is that things can fall apart, catastrophically. Progress has been real, could be real going forward, but is neither guaranteed nor, frankly, all that likely.
Second, I agree that mindsets and how we frame our problems and how the world works are essential to progress. Important here is your insight on positive vs negative sum worldviews.
Third, I agree that coordination and cooperation are essential. History is full of technological gains which have been squandered in negative sum conflicts.
Where I am scratching my head though is on your list of coordination problems. For example, politics doesn’t just require us to agree to legislate good policies, it first requires us to discover what good policies are, and then agree on these, considering our different goals, values and contexts. The point is that you and I and 8 billion other people probably don’t agree, and talking about global consciousness does nothing to change that.
On inequality, the problem isn’t in allocating resources more equally, it is allocating them efficiently, effectively and fairly so that people are incentivized to contribute to the solutions with appropriate safety nets. Cooperation is an extremely tricky problem, and it requires both solving the dilemma of cooperation and the knowledge problem of coordination. IOW, we need to discover what to do, and we need to do it in ways which doesn’t encourage free riding, exploitation and domination.
Thank you! I’m not sure I’m trying to wave anything away. All of these problems are wickedly hard, proven by the fact that our institutions are struggling to tackle them at scale. But I do agree that the START depends on a foundation of cooperation. It can’t be any other way. That’s how we find shared values. And you can only find shared values if you have a theory of mind of your fellow humans. It’s simple to diagnose cancer, but wickedly hard to treat it.
https://youtu.be/NVsBFOB7H44?si=VwBW21K1haqxmpuB
A worthy insight into Consciousness...
Thank you!
Love the McGilchrist... but DEI, lol. There is nothing more left hemisphere than refusing to see people as people and instead lotting them into categories of race or sex.
Thanks Anne Marie!