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The Portal
27: Daniel Schmachtenberger - On Avoiding Apocalypses
Mar 27, 2020
03:38:37
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Quick takeaways
- Incentivize honest information sharing to enhance societal innovation and resource efficiency.
- Shift from possession to access promotes anti-rivalrous behavior and collaborative societies.
- Develop improved systems for sense-making and decision-making to export solutions and foster interdependence.
- Transition from rivalry to emotional connections for psychological health and sustainable fulfilment.
- Human tool-making enables predatory capacity increase, leading to thriving in diverse environments and becoming apex predators.
Deep dives
Incentives and Information Warfare in a Rivalrous System
In a system where externalities are not internalized, businesses often exploit resources without paying the true cost, leading to harmful effects on the environment. Companies may lobby to change laws in their favor to maintain profitability. Similarly, information warfare and disinformation tactics are used to influence public perception, contributing to misinformed decision-making within society.
Multipolar Traps and the Race to Harm
In scenarios where short-term gains lead to long-term harm, agents pursue actions beneficial in the immediate future but detrimental in the broader context, creating a multipolar trap. This race to harm phenomenon is evident in situations like arms races, where one entity developing weapons prompts others to follow suit, escalating tensions and necessitating countermeasures, perpetuating a harmful cycle.
Ethical Dilemmas in a System of Self-Perpetuating Behavior
The challenge of addressing climate change and economic externalities highlights the ethical dilemmas within a system that incentivizes unsustainable practices for short-term gains. Solutions require a shift from a rivalrous, self-perpetuating dynamic to a collaborative, sustainable approach, where external costs are internalized, and incentives align with long-term environmental and societal well-being.
Building Anti-Rivalrous Systems through Information Sharing
Creating a system where there is an incentive to share honest information and not disinform can lead to more innovative and resource-efficient systems. By promoting accurate information sharing and reducing disinformation and information withholding, a society can enhance its collective coordination capacity, outcompete existing systems, and potentially become an attractive model for future civilizations.
Technology Creation vs. Evolution in Social Systems
Technology creation differs from natural evolution as it involves developing new tools rather than relying on biological mutations. The process of tool-making allows for the creation of new solutions and innovations not observed in nature. While evolution is marked by competition and rivalry, human technology creation is distinguished by cooperation and abstraction, enabling advancements beyond what natural systems exhibit.
Leveraging Technology and Reputation for Large-Scale Coordination
Harnessing technological advancements like blockchain for incorruptible record-keeping and using reputation systems can facilitate effective large-scale coordination akin to small tribal dynamics. By reducing disinformation, improving information sharing incentives, and leveraging reputation technologies, societies can potentially scale cooperative behaviors and enhance collective decision-making.
Evolution of Tool Making and Predatory Capacity
Tool making marked a significant shift in human evolution, allowing a rapid increase in predatory capacity. Unlike in nature where mutation pressures are evenly distributed, human tool making enabled a drastic rise in predative abilities that outpaced environmental resilience. This led to the ability to thrive in diverse environments like the arctic, becoming apex predators everywhere, unlike other species limited to specific habitats.
Shift from Possession to Access for Anti-Rivalrous Dynamics
The concept of shifting from possession to access highlights a key shift in human dynamics towards anti-rivalrous behavior. By uncoupling possession from access through systems like self-driving Ubers or commonwealth resources, a more collaborative society emerges. Encouraging a focus on unique contributions rather than metrics like status fosters a culture where individual creativity enriches the common good, leading to a less rivalrous and more harmonious societal structure.
Rethinking Civilization's Success Metrics
Creating a better civilization involves developing improved systems for sense-making and decision-making, leading to a higher quality of life and enhanced innovative capabilities. By fostering a society free of disinformation and promoting effective coordination, civilizations can export solutions to global problems, shifting enmity to interdependence. The focus lies on open sourcing social technologies that encourage information sharing and resource coordination, offering a pathway out of the multi-polar trap by emphasizing collaborative innovation and value creation over traditional power dynamics.
Overcoming Hypernormal Stimuli for a Fulfilling Existence
Challenging the prevalent desires for status, material wealth, and somatic pleasures, the podcast delves into the concept of exploring fulfilment beyond these hypernormal stimuli. It discusses the importance of transitioning from rivalry-driven mindsets to fostering emotional connections, empathy, and compassion within individuals. Emphasizing the need for psychological health rooted in genuine human relationships and a deeper sense of purpose, the conversation advocates for shifting societal values towards sustainable fulfilment and authentic engagement with life.
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The Portal With Daniel Scmachden Burger, Eric Weinsin, Thanks for Coming Through and Will See You Next Time
2min
In this second episode of the Portal to be released during shelter-in-place restrictions during the Corona Virus Pandemic, we release an older discussion with Daniel Shmachtenberger on whether there is any plausible long term scenario for human flourishing confined to a single shared planet.
Daniel is seen as a leader of the growing Game B subculture of the human potential movement. This group bets that there is a second evolutionary stable strategy for cohabiting not based on conflict or rivalry, even for life raised in Game A (i.e. standard evolutionary and economic environments based on scarcity and rivalrous goods. Eric asks Daniel about where the bright spots and progress might be in this movement which refuses to accept the fate that that Eric has elsewhere put forward as the Twin Nuclei Problem of having unlocked the power of both Cell and Atom in the early 1950s without the wisdom to use it.
Thank You To Our Sponsors:
Athletic Greens: AthleticGreens.com/Portal
Mack Weldon: MackWeldon.com - enter promo code PORTAL
Four Sigmatic: FourSigmatic.com/Portal
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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