The “institutions” people rarely if ever address the question of scale.
How exactly are you going to “achieve social consensus,” as @DAcemogluMIT says we must, at a scale of 336 million people (population of the U.S.)? 30 million people (population of Texas)? 7 million people (population of Houston metro area)?
Human beings evolved in communities of under 150 people (the Dunbar number). Beyond that, “consensus” (in any active, intentional sense) becomes very difficult.
Perhaps the key to achieving social consensus at larger scales is for those institutions to do less. A lot less.
But somehow that never seems to be on the table for mainstream social scientists.
NSmolenskiFan
npub1qq…y354d
2024-10-18 07:47:12
Author Public Key
npub1qqqqqqx2crupn0c6pfsv3y0wkxfe97v0n82gpy95l6sv55fuazlqfy354dPublished at
2024-10-18 07:47:12Event JSON
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"content": "The “institutions” people rarely if ever address the question of scale. \n\nHow exactly are you going to “achieve social consensus,” as @DAcemogluMIT says we must, at a scale of 336 million people (population of the U.S.)? 30 million people (population of Texas)? 7 million people (population of Houston metro area)?\n\nHuman beings evolved in communities of under 150 people (the Dunbar number). Beyond that, “consensus” (in any active, intentional sense) becomes very difficult.\n\nPerhaps the key to achieving social consensus at larger scales is for those institutions to do less. A lot less.\n\nBut somehow that never seems to be on the table for mainstream social scientists.",
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