RichardKennaway comments on Link: Interesting Video About Automation and the Singularity - Less Wrong

2 Post author: cameroncowan 12 November 2014 06:31AM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 17 November 2014 09:28:19AM 3 points [-]

What stabilises the value of this fiat currency of opprobrium?

I'm not sure what this means. Can you explain?

In general terms, your proposal is for everyone to act the way you think they should, and then society's problems will be solved. It is literally by fiat: you say "let it be", and imagine it working. But unless there are internal reasons why the whole thing would work, reasons for each individual following what they judge to be their own interest, then it isn't a mechanism, any more than a picture of a clock is a clock. A cultural norm is never sustained merely by the fact of being a cultural norm.

How do you create a cultural norm anyway? Look at the world --- worldwide, there's no global cultural norm, despite the strenuous efforts of religions and expansionist states throughout history.