One of my obsessions has been learning about Complex Systems Theory and Emergence. It's a rabbit hole that's probably done more to change how I think about the world. The past. The present. The future. It's been humbling intellectual journey, because of how much it reveals about what we don't know.
Understanding path dependence is another important concept. Looking at the way systems of culture, politics and economics are *path* *dependent* can help focus you better on how to bend the curve of history, rather than getting stuck in a spiral of moral outrage about injustice in our society.
Moral outrage about "the system" is probably just about the least productive way to reason about the world and make it a better place. If anything, it can be counterproductive, and cause you to justify bad things, in the name of revenge or because you've managed to convince yourself that your perceived enemies are so bad, that hurting them is morally justified.
The world is the way the world is right now. There's nothing that's going to change the present. All you can do is bend incentives towards the future.
brockm / Mike Brock
npub1hy…wk7cp
2023-01-06 01:26:19
Author Public Key
npub1hyqrsvl6hle8r5rc9cpshesm0mpcee75tgde4p5lhke5h83dyqqqdwk7cpPublished at
2023-01-06 01:26:19Event JSON
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"content": "One of my obsessions has been learning about Complex Systems Theory and Emergence. It's a rabbit hole that's probably done more to change how I think about the world. The past. The present. The future. It's been humbling intellectual journey, because of how much it reveals about what we don't know. \n\nUnderstanding path dependence is another important concept. Looking at the way systems of culture, politics and economics are *path* *dependent* can help focus you better on how to bend the curve of history, rather than getting stuck in a spiral of moral outrage about injustice in our society. \n\nMoral outrage about \"the system\" is probably just about the least productive way to reason about the world and make it a better place. If anything, it can be counterproductive, and cause you to justify bad things, in the name of revenge or because you've managed to convince yourself that your perceived enemies are so bad, that hurting them is morally justified. \n\nThe world is the way the world is right now. There's nothing that's going to change the present. All you can do is bend incentives towards the future.",
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