With the election coming up I thought it might be appropriate to talk about what I think would make a better society. Keep in mind that my idea is not perfect by any means, perfection seems to violate the laws of nature as everyone has a different idea of what is perfect.
First the government, democracy sounds good, but humanity's social tendencies mean that it easy for large groups to be swayed into making decisions that prove detrimental to them. Not to mention that statistically speaking, at least half of a population has a lower than average IQ. Seriously, do you really think that the majority is always right? In my ideal society, leaders would be selected by small groups of highly educated people based solely on their merits. There is some possibility for corruption in a Meritocracy like this, but having multiple people reduces the chances of cronyism or nepotism influencing decisions. The only problem is the possibility of some crazy low-ranking administrator secretly using unethical tactics to achieve his goals and advance in rank to the top. But that could be easily solved by keeping all administrators/bureacrats/politicians below a certain rank under close observation, in an extreme case implants could be used for this purpose.
Secondly, economy, lassez-faire capitalism, the government would only interfere in times of crisis such as a recession or potential depression. In exchange for the limited involvement from the government, the corporations would not be allowed to influence politics at all. Taxes would primarily be on a personal level based on a set percentage of one's income. The internal structure of most companies would be based on the same model as the government, but it would be harder to regulate and inevitably there would be some highly corrupt megacorps similarly to how there is now, maybe worse.
Thirdly, culture, I would prefer a completely secular society with no religion or superstition, but I doubt that will happen. Instead all faiths and beliefs would be respected, as long as they don't try to force their beliefs on others. Viral memes that are potentially dangerous (for example, a religious sect that encourages members to kill themselves) would be suppressed if deemed necessary, but generally people's personal lives would not be any of the government's business. In other words, it doesn't really matter what people do as long as they don't harm anyone (themselves or others).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Ugh. I don't know where to start.
if at least half of the population has an iq below average how is said iq average
if u know what would go wrong with lassez-faire capitalism then y r u in favor of it
highly educated group of leaders thats a first in 8 years
You do know what average means right? It is the sum of all values divided by the # of values. Meaning that unless there are some extreme variations approximately half are above and half are below.
At the very least corporations would not be influencing government like they are now.
Meritocracy is fraught with corruptive potential. Who would decide who are the most intelligent people? Who is to say these so called intelligent people would not establish rules of order that only benefit themselves? Who says people who have lower than average IQs aren't able to know what's best for themselves and others? Democracy or representational democracy works on the premise that people will elect people who think most like them or will work to benefit the electorate. Doing what is most logical is not always the best thing for the most people. And even logic is relative to the thinker's own experience and enviroment.
As for laissez faire capitalism, well, by not allowing corporations to influence politics, you are regulating them, so it is not lf. The reason the recession continues is specifically because the gov. did not regulate the corps. enough. The republicans continued to reduce regulation more and more and the corps. went crazy with greed. The banks issued risky loans because they could make $$ and now the gov. is covering for them. The big wigs continue to get their big bonuses and the consumers who took out those loans are screwed. We need more regulation, not less. Corporations cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
Some Transhumanists think that after the Singularity superintelligent AIs should be put in charge of society as they could be programmed to act in either the best interests of the people or the most objective manner possible. However most Transhumanists are either Democratic Socialists or Libertarians.
They always say computers are only as good as their programmers. Couldn't AIs be programmed by corrupt people or with whatever perspective the programmer has. There is no such thing as objective, IMHO.
If you saw the I, Robot movie, the AI in it decided to try to take over, as humanity was not doing a very good job of governing themselves ("you charge us with your safekeeping, yet you wage wars and toxify your Earth"). I found myself agreeing with her, actually.
Post a Comment