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The follow on from this is that any structure one wants to persist through time had better rest maximally on people acting in their own self interest.


This doesn't seem possible, because self interest will always lead to hacking the structure for better returns, and technology accelerates the ability to do that. It seems to me that whatever is put in place to direct selfish behavior toward good will eventually be rerouted or broken for one exceptionally selfish asshole or group.


It's not a binary classification.

Some structures are more resistant, some less.

Some are self-correcting, some not.

The biggest design feature is usually requiring energy to be burnt to hack the desired outcome. At some point it's more effort than benefit.




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