RE: Property Rights

O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Mon, 24 May 1999 16:23:46 +1000

>
>Any good engineer knows that it is far easier to work with the forces
>involved rather than try to combat them. Opposing natural forces is a
>stressful, unstable, temporary thing. This is why free market capitalism
>works best, it doesn't try to fight human nature, but it tries to take
>advantage of it to fullfill all needs (including altruistic ones).
>
>We are learning with computing that evolved systems are capable of
>becoming the most powerful systems ever, far beyond the capabilities of
>targeted purposeful design.
>
>Extropy is not anti-evolution, but for enhanced evolution.
>
>Mike Lorrey
>

Actually, that's quite interesting. Enhanced evolution, yes, I can go with that (although as an interested observer, since evolution from the individual's perspective is all about being squashed like a bug, just ask a bug).

My only problem with evolution is that it needs individual failure to work. I'm not really interested in failing (lethaly) for the good of the group, so I'm hoping there's a better way for humanity to move forward.

I would make the statement that the forms of capitalism currently practised in the world are not perfect. I hope others would agree. That is not to say that they are necessarily fataly flawed. Just imperfect.

Then the concept of enhanced evolution, when applied to the market (as it would need to be, given imperfection), implies a path to "perfection" littered with the corpses of the "failures".

>From the viewpoint of a long (infinitely long?) lived individual, there
is a big flaw in the idea of a competitive system. The flaw is that we are all doomed to failure. If the probability of failure for us is greater than zero in an evolutionary "trial", then it must approach 1 over time, as the number of trials increases. And the probability of failure in a trial must be greater than zero, if just to account for forces out of individual control.

In my own individual, greedy, selfish way I think that this individual, greedy, selfish economic system is a bum-deal, because it dooms me to eventual (multiple) failure. If that failure can be fatal (and it can), then I'm really worried.

Hey, maybe we could cooperate. Oops, I've been watching too much Sesame Street.

Emlyn