V_V comments on [Link] More ominous than a [Marriage] strike - Less Wrong

6 Post author: GLaDOS 04 January 2014 05:34PM

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Comment author: V_V 05 January 2014 09:22:05AM *  3 points [-]

The Soviets were masters at coercion through fear, but the problem wasn’t a rebellion, it was that they had reached the limits of incentive through fear. In the short and even medium term fear is a very effective motivator. But over time if overused it loses some of its power, especially when it comes to the kind of productivity which requires creativity and risk taking.

The USSR was technologically advanced until the end. They even operated the Mir and flew the Buran during their dissolution.
While the USSR may have not been a champion of work ethic, I doubt it collapsed because the Average Ivan was slacking off.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 05 January 2014 09:22:43PM *  4 points [-]

The USSR was technologically advanced until the end.

Stealing technology from the West help significantly.

(Even Slovakia produced computers those days. Sure, they were merely copies of foreign computers, but it didn't reduce our pleasure from playing games on them.)

I guess in another discussion this could be an argument for abolishing patents: If you ignore the patents (as the communist countries did), you can have cool technology even when your people starve; so probably if you could feed them well, it would be even better.

Back to the original topic... in an alternate universe, where it would be impossible to copy the West, Soviet science and technology would be much worse.

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