Item — HN Reader

For the longest time now, I have been thinking about this fact: Mine, and the entire Humanity's survival depends upon a mere handful of men. I sometimes think about how a madman could launch a nuclear attack that could potentially cascade into the extinction of humanity. Or how another authority could cut millions of trees solely because of the fact that it lies on his/her territory and that it's none of our business, triggering irreversible climate change and once again, the potential extinction of humanity. All of this makes me terribly sad.

What use is years and years worth of scientific research and intelligence if all it does is cause our own extinction? We are just like Ouroboros eating its own tail.

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Same goes for business and wealth. I'm convinced that it's in the best interest of all of us to limit the accumulation of political, economic and military power. We'd be in a much better place if we had universal laws that forced countries, businesses to break up or become more democratic as they grow. Progressive tax rates should limit people from getting rich enough to buy up whole industries or at the very least we should limit these individuals from buying up majority stakes in new ventures.

limiting the accumulation of political, economic and military power requires a tremendous accumulation of power

It's a red herring. The true underlying causes for these things are already solved by Islamic regulations on finance, societal issues, social welfare, etc.

That's why decentralization is important. It's less efficient than centralization but more resilient. But because of efficiency, life tends to evolve into complex centralized systems that become incredibly vulnerable.

Most life systems are chaotic and decentralized.

Human constructs and social endeavors are centralized because the network effect matters.

Decentralization is not the silver bullet folks make it out to be.

> Or how another authority could cut millions of trees solely because of the fact that it lies on his/her territory and that it's none of our business, triggering irreversible climate change

Even worse, authorities across the world are collectively cutting down about 15 billion trees per year, split roughly evenly across permanent deforestation, shifting agriculture (conversion of forest for farming), and logging: https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation#not-all-forest-loss...

With regard to countries... it was a short few decades ago when the left used to clamor and demand self-determination of countries and anti-imperialism.

But today we see exactly the opposite. That countries do not have a right for self determination and that unelected bodies can dictate form afar what countries should do whether or not they are signatories to an agreement or not. That imposition of extra national law is imperialism --not by a country but by elite leadership. If we were to vote democratically from one global pool of voters, would we agree to what the masses from those countries vote for?

And yet... more people are alive and live far longer, than at any time in history. It is weird how all of pessimism and optimism is rooted in selective cherry picking examples.

I think there is plenty of reason for both pessimism and optimism, and plenty of reasons for neither.