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mk  ·  3977 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What 150 of the world's smartest people are worried about.

In my mind it has to do with a loss of anonymity coupled with increased regulation of interactions. Democracy is a way to achieve stability amongst free agents that feels good for most involved. However, part of the freedom of democracy comes from taking into account the unpredictability of these agents. As we can reduce the unpredictability, we can increase regulation, but at the same time decrease the incidents by which regulation rubs any one agent wrong. That is, until there is a significant change in the general condition for most involved. At a certain point, it will be easier to modify our behaviors than it will be to modify the regulations built to account for them, and given that there will be few unknowns regarding us agents, modifying our behavior can be done in a way that doesn't feel disruptive. Why modify for a hard truth when you can achieve the same result by serving up a soft lie?