From: alexboko@umich.edu
Date: Fri Mar 21 2003 - 12:25:00 MST
From: "Alex Future Bokov" <alexboko@umich.edu>
X-Mailer: YaBB
[quote from: Eliezer on 2003-03-21 at 11:52:35]
Hm. I foresee the richest individual(s) in the region making threats of
airstrikes against all parties too poor to launch a retaliatory airstrike.
Since the airstrike doesn't need to be carried out, except perhaps for
one or two examples, this should provide a steady revenue stream for the
individuals rich enough to afford airstrikes, but the airstrike company
itself will eventually go bankrupt, perhaps being bought out by the
What would push it into bankruptcy? It keeps the cash even if the funds never
acchieve threshold levels. Conversely, what would be the revenue stream of the
despots? Blackmailing the people? Why would the people pay the middlemen when
they can go straight to the violence-management agent and put money into their
anti-strike and MAD funds?
[quote from: Eliezer on 2003-03-21 at 11:52:35]
violence monopolists. Similarly, the rich individual could launch a
preemptive strike at any poor individuals who showed signs of clubbing up
to buy a strike at the rich individual.
It's a lot more expensive for one agent to actually launch multiple strikes
than for multiple agents to contribute to one strike fund. In the big picture,
your ability to attack/defend is a function of how much wealth you have. The
assumption of a market is that though there will be rich and poor, the force
of numbers will be in equilibrium with individual wealth and the overall
'will' of society is triangulated. The violence industry doesn't efficiently
reflect society's 'will' at this time, because it is almost entirely composed
of state monopolies.
[quote from: Eliezer on 2003-03-21 at 11:52:35]
Looks just like our same old world to me.
A number of important differences. One of which is that in our world,
airstrikes are an all-or-none proposition with a tremendous cost of entry and
no option of fractional airstrikes. Nor is automated retaliation currently
available to ordinary individuals.
Also, the lone-nut dilemma will be something we'll have to face
eventually. Might as well start the learning curve now, before even more
destructive weapons will become even more widely available to individuals.
Come to think of it, in the current world, it might be instructive to figure
out what social/game-theory/psychological forces prevent people living in
areas with lax gun laws (e.g. TX) from actually going out and killing each
other indiscriminately in huge numbers. Figure that one out, and you'll be one
step closer to figuring out what will keep people from grey-gooing each other
to death.
---- This message was posted by Alex Future Bokov to the Extropians 2003 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=67;action=display;threadid=55263>
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