This is an excellent post. You miss a significant upside to this delusion in general: status is zero-sum, so divergent status creates new winners. In a large society, you need divergent status mechanisms because there’s only so much status to go around if everyone totally agrees on the rules. By splitting into subgroups, it’s possible to have many more high-status folk. Indeed, I’d expect a moderately advanced AI-genie to design a utopia fragmented enough that most people can be at least somewhat high status.
We already have a lot of that going on in our society. Is “success” measured by how much money you win? how much money you show off? how much money you save? how famous you are? how hard-working you are? How creative you are? How good-looking you are? How high in a formal hierarchy you are? How many people are under your supervision? How many women you sleep with? How few men you sleep with? How loyal to your country you are? How skillful a lover you are? How good-looking your wife is? How rich and powerful your husband is? How many people visit your website? How many people read your book? How much critics praise your book? How smart you are? How open minded you are? How compassionate you are? How sincere you are? How original you are? How many friends you have? How many levels at World of Warcraft you are? How strong you are? How good a fighter you are?
So many scales to judge people, you’re bound to find one or several on which you’re better than most people.
A big part of the gap between left-wing and right-wing is caused by two groups with different standards trying to establish their standard as the right one, that’s the most worthy of praise.
This is an excellent post. You miss a significant upside to this delusion in general: status is zero-sum, so divergent status creates new winners. In a large society, you need divergent status mechanisms because there’s only so much status to go around if everyone totally agrees on the rules. By splitting into subgroups, it’s possible to have many more high-status folk. Indeed, I’d expect a moderately advanced AI-genie to design a utopia fragmented enough that most people can be at least somewhat high status.
We already have a lot of that going on in our society. Is “success” measured by how much money you win? how much money you show off? how much money you save? how famous you are? how hard-working you are? How creative you are? How good-looking you are? How high in a formal hierarchy you are? How many people are under your supervision? How many women you sleep with? How few men you sleep with? How loyal to your country you are? How skillful a lover you are? How good-looking your wife is? How rich and powerful your husband is? How many people visit your website? How many people read your book? How much critics praise your book? How smart you are? How open minded you are? How compassionate you are? How sincere you are? How original you are? How many friends you have? How many levels at World of Warcraft you are? How strong you are? How good a fighter you are?
So many scales to judge people, you’re bound to find one or several on which you’re better than most people.
A big part of the gap between left-wing and right-wing is caused by two groups with different standards trying to establish their standard as the right one, that’s the most worthy of praise.