RENAME: No Escape

TL;DR. No we really cannot just “pull the plug”

Thesis

• Agents embedded within a process of natural selection cannot escape or halt that process of natural selection.
• Even when these agents see the overall outcome of the process is catastrophically negative for them, they still cannot halt or escape.
• Through collective action, agents are able to shape the outcomes of these processes.
• In practice, however, their actual ability to shape outcomes is far less than one might first imagine.

Consequences Several (humanly) dire consequences follow from this thesis:

• The rise of [[Corp_AI]]
• [[Loop_Closing]] in both innovation and execution
• We absolutely [[Cant_Stop]]
• Transition to a new [[Apex_Predator]]

Applications This inevitability outcome applies at four levels within the human species:

1. A the nation-state level. Nations tend to take actions that locally increase their wealth and power at great cost to themselves and everyone.
2. A the capital-pool level. We can view large pools of capital as agents. When viewed in this way we see these agents generally seek largest ROI (largest increase in wealth and power) with nearly no regard for any other consequence.
3. A the corporate level.
4. At the individual level.

There are important nuances in each of the cases above, still the over all trend is clear: Even though each of these four kinds of agents are ultimately backed by human minds that are able to perceive and avert catastrophic outcomes, in this case they are “locked in” and cannot halt or escape the natural selection process that ultimately forces their hand. The reasons for this counter-intuitive outcome are covered in the justifications section.

Justifications: Significant justification is require here. We are drawing a very broad conclusion across quite distinct categories of agents. What pressures are at work that ensure a consistent outcome across such different cases?

• MINORITY RULE -
• RATIONALIZATION -
• RACE TO THE BOTTOM -

Discussion:

We labor under the fiction of an executive control which we as a species demonstrably do not have.

Individual entities might operate against these pressures for a time, but others will simply take advantage of this choice and those dissenting entities will simply loose power over time and become less relevant. All entities clearly seeing this reality will usually not even try operate against this pressure, but will use that reality to rationalize their acquiescence.

In limited cases, groups can change laws in ways to shape the competition game, but humanity simply cannot escape playing the game. That is completely out of our control.

Many (dire) consequences follow from this reality:

Idea: No matter what humanity does nation-states, corporations, and individuals cannot escape the Natural Selection systems to which they are a part. Nor can we escape the most dire consequences of these pressures.

Specifically:

• To significantly and often overwhelming degrees entities tend to engage in behaviors that will increase their expected wealth and power.
• They will often continue this behavior even when they strongly suspect that globally this behavior will be catastrophic for all entities and for themselves personally.
• Essentially the conclusion is that these thinking agents as a group are COMPLETELY POWERLESS in stop themselves from driving themselves towards known catastrophic outcomes.

This selection pressure occurs pervasively in at least three distinct human levels:

• The NATION state
• The INDIVIDUAL person is often within social / work contexts where there is some power/wealth dynamic at work. These individuals as a group will