The 'Moloch' Thread
- Papus79
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: February 19th, 2017, 6:59 pm
The 'Moloch' Thread
A link to the Slate Star Codex article:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/m ... on-moloch/
The core of what's being discussed here is the concept of multipolar traps. Multipolar traps include defection incentives but really describe a dynamic where if people start defecting in a certain area it then becomes an existential issue for those competing in the same area where if that other actor can get away with defection, or at least get away with it long enough to obtain an unfair advantage for having defected, their choice is either defect themselves, go out of business, or in more severe scenarios be enslaved or die.
Moloch is then a way of describing defection space or the geometry of toxic incentives leading to multipolar traps and zero-sum / negative-sum games.
Seeing Liv Boeree make her rounds in different places in the last month (Stoa, Lex Fridman, etc.) got me thinking about it again. On one hand I'm really glad they've got a celebrity exponent who both has applied competence with high-stakes competition as a world-class poker player but also has the intellectual chops to then speak directly to both the causes and what the solution space might look like.
It won't surprise me too much if this whole thing is new to a lot of people, I've been consuming a lot of GameB material and long-form podcasts (especially when I see Daniel Schmachtenberger getting interviewed in various places). IMHO it's a concept that does need to go mainstream because I think it really has a big Girardian component, ie. that like scapegoating it works best when people don't have the language for it and/or when people full stop don't realize that it's a thing and they may very well act on it but it's purely subconscious without having any 'nameable' point of reference.
Sunlight as the best disinfectant is a double-edged sword often because it leaves out whose paying attention and why but in some cases I think there are dynamics where the bulk of the problem is that people swim in it all day long without a cohesive grasp and consequently a lot of it happens below their own moral radar (a great example is when anonymity prevents one from seeing visceral effects of harm, like someone robbing BTC/ETH wallets online).
- Oliver Krieger
- Posts: 5
- Joined: September 19th, 2022, 10:04 pm
- Favorite Philosopher: René Girard
- Location: Germany
- Contact:
What a great poem
German conscientious objectors of the year 2022 cite the realization, they'd be expected to fight Russia, as main reason for their rejecting the military service.
From the perspective of somebody with a military, not militarist family background, but lacking parents who were soldiers themselves, i understand conscientious objection of truly have become a matter of not wanting to be the family scapegoat, that is, the one from the group who has got to do it for sake of all of its members. I also understand that education is a critical influence, which means, given the soldierly education, including the devolution of familial responsibilities, duties, powers, and concepts from the above of elder generations, there would be less of a question of whether or whether not do it, of feeling like being the scapegoat for the job at the front already within ones family.
But, since demilitarization, social criticizm, automatization of warfare, decolonization, to name a few, all served and serve to make families less militarist, and independent from militarist virtues, there is, from the perspective of the traditionalist, fearing to be forsaken and left without anyone to grab the gun and fight for the cause of everybody, no cure available.
The dawn of the war-robot is the redemption of the soldier.
- Papus79
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: February 19th, 2017, 6:59 pm
Re: The 'Moloch' Thread
- Papus79
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: February 19th, 2017, 6:59 pm
Re: The 'Moloch' Thread
- Papus79
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: February 19th, 2017, 6:59 pm
Re: The 'Moloch' Thread
- AgentSmith
- Posts: 108
- Joined: January 29th, 2022, 1:55 am
Re: The 'Moloch' Thread
- Papus79
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: February 19th, 2017, 6:59 pm
Re: The 'Moloch' Thread
Jonathan Pageau also just chimed in on AI and Moloch:
- Papus79
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: February 19th, 2017, 6:59 pm
Re: The 'Moloch' Thread
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023