This is very interesting. Debriefing summaries like this are very useful in assessing the state of play. Information like this is typically kept confidential, so thank you for sharing.
I think I drew different conclusions from the information than a need to act on legislators. This article highlights vulnerabilities in the systems that are supposed to protect us. If you were able to use FUD to get tangible action from officials, then other lobbyists using positive incentives, should be able to get even greater action from a greater number of officials.
It seems to me the threat is more the lobbyists than their customers. Organizing action at lobbyists who are enabling things that pose an existential threat to civilization is perhaps a more structured approach that reduces the advantages provided by the customers of the lobbyists. Trying to get Whitehall to act for the Greater Good is high minded, but is it practical, given the ease with which they can be spurred to action?
For this to be true, parliamentarians would have to be like ducklings who are impressed by whoever gets to them first or perversely run away from protecting The Greater Good merely because it is The Greater Good. That level of cynicism goes far beyond what falls out of the standard Interest Group model (e.g. Mancur Olsen’s). By that model, given that ControlAI represents a committed interest group, there is no reason to believe they can’t win.
This is very interesting. Debriefing summaries like this are very useful in assessing the state of play. Information like this is typically kept confidential, so thank you for sharing.
I think I drew different conclusions from the information than a need to act on legislators. This article highlights vulnerabilities in the systems that are supposed to protect us. If you were able to use FUD to get tangible action from officials, then other lobbyists using positive incentives, should be able to get even greater action from a greater number of officials.
It seems to me the threat is more the lobbyists than their customers. Organizing action at lobbyists who are enabling things that pose an existential threat to civilization is perhaps a more structured approach that reduces the advantages provided by the customers of the lobbyists. Trying to get Whitehall to act for the Greater Good is high minded, but is it practical, given the ease with which they can be spurred to action?
For this to be true, parliamentarians would have to be like ducklings who are impressed by whoever gets to them first or perversely run away from protecting The Greater Good merely because it is The Greater Good. That level of cynicism goes far beyond what falls out of the standard Interest Group model (e.g. Mancur Olsen’s). By that model, given that ControlAI represents a committed interest group, there is no reason to believe they can’t win.