Increase how much coercive power we hold over how many of our fellow human beings: the ability to make them do things or else.
I don’t think this sort of power is very useful in the real world at all. It’s great for Jack Bower fantasies, but when was the last time you got something you really wanted from a prison inmate? And the amount of man-power and resources it takes to control people at that level is wastefully inefficient. Coalitions of willing allies are much more powerful.
I was thinking less in terms of Jack Bauer and more in terms of Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, the Medici, the Rothschild, and so on and so forth. The “or else” can be as simple as “or else you are fired” or “or else you will lose this contract” or “or else I will never finance your party again”.
There will be more people willing to become your allies once you have proven that you can get your agreements done, the same way there will be more people willing to lend you money if you can prove you don’t need it. The best thing about being able to use coercion is not having to use it.
The amount of man-power and resources it takes to control people overtly is enormous. However, “I will look bad/inconsistent” is a surprisingly powerful “or else”.
In terms of getting more people to do X, ideally people should want X to occur, should like X occurring, and should approve of X occurring.
Coercion seems like it usually implies at least one of the following: That they do not want, do not like, or do not approve of whatever it is that you are attempting to coerce them into doing, but that you make them do it anyway, usually by connecting it to a threat.
Willing allies seem to be defined in that it is much more likely that they probably already like, want, and approve of the activity. But despite that, you may still want them to like, want or approve of the activity more.
For instance, if someone is collecting money for cryonics research, someone who immediately gives them five dollars and doesn’t require any convincing at all certainly seems like a willing ally. But cryonics research will cost more than five dollars, so you still have to find out if it’s efficient to push them for more.
So when you want Person X to do activity Y, you can break down each element individually. This allows you to be more specific about why Person X isn’t already doing activity Y, and then you can consider the costs of each possible method on an individual basis. Although, this includes of course the cost of an analysis itself. Some people don’t want/like/approve of being analyzed in that manner, and attempting to figure out what they like, want, and approve of will not help.
This sounds correct on it’s face, but I’m still concerned I’m missing something and I can’t see it. However, I’ve looked over it a few times and I don’t see anything wrong. Is there an angle I’m missing?
I don’t think this sort of power is very useful in the real world at all. It’s great for Jack Bower fantasies, but when was the last time you got something you really wanted from a prison inmate? And the amount of man-power and resources it takes to control people at that level is wastefully inefficient. Coalitions of willing allies are much more powerful.
I was thinking less in terms of Jack Bauer and more in terms of Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, the Medici, the Rothschild, and so on and so forth. The “or else” can be as simple as “or else you are fired” or “or else you will lose this contract” or “or else I will never finance your party again”.
There will be more people willing to become your allies once you have proven that you can get your agreements done, the same way there will be more people willing to lend you money if you can prove you don’t need it. The best thing about being able to use coercion is not having to use it.
The amount of man-power and resources it takes to control people overtly is enormous. However, “I will look bad/inconsistent” is a surprisingly powerful “or else”.
I was thinking of a way of expressing my thoughts on this, and this chart from Yvain occurred to me.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/6nz/approving_reinforces_loweffort_behaviors/
In terms of getting more people to do X, ideally people should want X to occur, should like X occurring, and should approve of X occurring.
Coercion seems like it usually implies at least one of the following: That they do not want, do not like, or do not approve of whatever it is that you are attempting to coerce them into doing, but that you make them do it anyway, usually by connecting it to a threat.
Willing allies seem to be defined in that it is much more likely that they probably already like, want, and approve of the activity. But despite that, you may still want them to like, want or approve of the activity more.
For instance, if someone is collecting money for cryonics research, someone who immediately gives them five dollars and doesn’t require any convincing at all certainly seems like a willing ally. But cryonics research will cost more than five dollars, so you still have to find out if it’s efficient to push them for more.
So when you want Person X to do activity Y, you can break down each element individually. This allows you to be more specific about why Person X isn’t already doing activity Y, and then you can consider the costs of each possible method on an individual basis. Although, this includes of course the cost of an analysis itself. Some people don’t want/like/approve of being analyzed in that manner, and attempting to figure out what they like, want, and approve of will not help.
This sounds correct on it’s face, but I’m still concerned I’m missing something and I can’t see it. However, I’ve looked over it a few times and I don’t see anything wrong. Is there an angle I’m missing?