The corporation, as such entities are legally defined in most countries at the present time, is a major contributor to a kind of “astronomical waste”. Alternate forms for organizing trade exist that would require only human-level intelligence to find and would yield much greater total prosperity than does having the corporation as the unit of organization.
Upvoted for disagreement. People are inventive and resourceful. They have explored “organization space” pretty thoroughly. Many successful alternatives to corporations already exist and are functioning successfully. Any corporation producing “astronomical waste” will quickly be destroyed by corporate or non-corporate competitors
Partnerships, sole proprietorships, co ops, socialism (i.e. state run enterprises). Much of the construction industry involves small firms coordinating the work of subcontractors. Same with advertising, cleaning services, etc.
I’m not even sure where to start, this documentary is a deliberately provoking exposition of some of the issues.
This suspicion of mine is more heavily fueled by personal experience though—I’ve seen so many decent people turn into bastards or otherwise abdicate moral responsibility when they found themselves at the helm of a company, no matter how noble their initial intentions.
I’ve seen so many decent people turn into bastards or otherwise abdicate moral responsibility when they found themselves at the helm of a company, no matter how noble their initial intentions.
Do you think this is different from the general ‘power corrupts’ tendency? The same thing seems to happen to politicians for example.
How do you know they were decent people? Were they actually tested, or was running a corporation their first test? It’s easy to be “decent” when there’s nothing really at stake.
Good point. What I mean is that I knew them first as employees, and I heard them speak about their employers and how employers should behave, and inferred from that some values of theirs. When they became employers in turn and I saw these values tested, they failed these tests miserably.
Voted down. Note that my interpretation is that your ‘human-level intelligence’ clause allows for tweaked uploads which could be almost arbitrarily re-engineered without exceeding human-level intelligence (for example, an organization made of the same mind replicated many times would be able to almost eliminate any internal controls, checks, balances, loafing, cheating etc. which take up so much of a modern corporation’s energy). I think there could be far more efficient structures and minds optimized for them rather than monkey packs.
This says nothing about whether such organizations will come to exist, outcompete existing corporations or organizations; they may just be known as a possibility before the Singularity happens and renders the question ‘what is possible with merely human-level intelligence’ entirely moot.
My liberal roots are telling me to hate corporations and agree with you, but I don’t think that actually constitutes agreement. I’m also curious to hear more.
The corporation, as such entities are legally defined in most countries at the present time, is a major contributor to a kind of “astronomical waste”. Alternate forms for organizing trade exist that would require only human-level intelligence to find and would yield much greater total prosperity than does having the corporation as the unit of organization.
(Strong hunch, >70%)
Upvoted for disagreement. People are inventive and resourceful. They have explored “organization space” pretty thoroughly. Many successful alternatives to corporations already exist and are functioning successfully. Any corporation producing “astronomical waste” will quickly be destroyed by corporate or non-corporate competitors
Such as?
Partnerships, sole proprietorships, co ops, socialism (i.e. state run enterprises). Much of the construction industry involves small firms coordinating the work of subcontractors. Same with advertising, cleaning services, etc.
Upvoted for disagreement, but this sounds interesting. Say more?
I’m not even sure where to start, this documentary is a deliberately provoking exposition of some of the issues.
This suspicion of mine is more heavily fueled by personal experience though—I’ve seen so many decent people turn into bastards or otherwise abdicate moral responsibility when they found themselves at the helm of a company, no matter how noble their initial intentions.
Do you think this is different from the general ‘power corrupts’ tendency? The same thing seems to happen to politicians for example.
How do you know they were decent people? Were they actually tested, or was running a corporation their first test? It’s easy to be “decent” when there’s nothing really at stake.
Good point. What I mean is that I knew them first as employees, and I heard them speak about their employers and how employers should behave, and inferred from that some values of theirs. When they became employers in turn and I saw these values tested, they failed these tests miserably.
Voted down. Note that my interpretation is that your ‘human-level intelligence’ clause allows for tweaked uploads which could be almost arbitrarily re-engineered without exceeding human-level intelligence (for example, an organization made of the same mind replicated many times would be able to almost eliminate any internal controls, checks, balances, loafing, cheating etc. which take up so much of a modern corporation’s energy). I think there could be far more efficient structures and minds optimized for them rather than monkey packs.
This says nothing about whether such organizations will come to exist, outcompete existing corporations or organizations; they may just be known as a possibility before the Singularity happens and renders the question ‘what is possible with merely human-level intelligence’ entirely moot.
My liberal roots are telling me to hate corporations and agree with you, but I don’t think that actually constitutes agreement. I’m also curious to hear more.