I think this is easiest to see in biorisk contexts. A fast government is more able to process new information, identify new threats and respond appropriately, and develop new capacities as required. Like, we’re still ~2 years in to discussion of mirror life with no ban / official government designation; with the current rate of technological progress, that’s ok but I think it wouldn’t be if technological progress were running ten times faster. (And that’s just saying “this isn’t ok”, not even developing new monitoring systems or countermeasures.)
“A fast government is more able to process new information, identify new threats and respond appropriately...”—I was with you right up to that last part. In what way is a fast government more able to respond appropriately?
The main answer is “responding at all is better than not responding”. Yes, I’m aware that governments have made lots of terrible decisions over the years—it’s not obvious to me that if we had the Bush-created pandemic preparedness office at the beginning of COVID (rather than it being dissolved earlier by Trump), they would have made things better instead of worse—but from my vantage point it is obvious that Operation Warp Speed was good and the FDA being slow (both on testing earlier and on approving the vaccine) was bad. In many contexts, velocity is a virtue on its own.
I think this is easiest to see in biorisk contexts. A fast government is more able to process new information, identify new threats and respond appropriately, and develop new capacities as required. Like, we’re still ~2 years in to discussion of mirror life with no ban / official government designation; with the current rate of technological progress, that’s ok but I think it wouldn’t be if technological progress were running ten times faster. (And that’s just saying “this isn’t ok”, not even developing new monitoring systems or countermeasures.)
“A fast government is more able to process new information, identify new threats and respond appropriately...”—I was with you right up to that last part. In what way is a fast government more able to respond appropriately?
The main answer is “responding at all is better than not responding”. Yes, I’m aware that governments have made lots of terrible decisions over the years—it’s not obvious to me that if we had the Bush-created pandemic preparedness office at the beginning of COVID (rather than it being dissolved earlier by Trump), they would have made things better instead of worse—but from my vantage point it is obvious that Operation Warp Speed was good and the FDA being slow (both on testing earlier and on approving the vaccine) was bad. In many contexts, velocity is a virtue on its own.