quotes from this review of "the collapse of complex societies" https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-the-collapse-of?r=morh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy …pic.twitter.com/9wnTXT7wX3
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> People keep wanting the state to do new things for them, and when they get those things, they start taking those for granted and require more benefits from the state to consider it legitimate
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> The Indiana state website could much more easily build the same feature by querying their own database, but they happen to be an organization that isn’t outputting this behavior, so the only people who are doing it are outsiders who annoy them by putting load on their network
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> The Romans maintained a powerful standing army, and their art does not concentrate on the mistreatment of prisoners. Classic Mayan states did not have standing armies. Their art depicts terrifying treatment of enemies. Without real strength, propaganda was the next best thing.
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> he notes multiple times elsewhere that there are territories that are a net loss to conquer because the cost of administration and other complexities outweighs the benefits.
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> Why can states not simply grow to their optimal size and stay there? If becoming more administratively complex would cost more than it would produce, simply do not do that.
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personal note here. seems similar to how elephants cannot reduce in size to survive famine. which is similar to the innovator's dilemma a high minimum metabolism limits available paths all "innovation" seem ooda-agile-blitzkreigy w movement not limited by a supply line
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a state similarly grows appendages like the elephants trunk and legs that it cannot just cut off in order to achieve a sustainable low metabolism state. it drains resources (fat) from the entire system until it collapses as a whole
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identity is also like a state. it grows in complexity until upkeep surpasses the marginal gains it can't downsize into a smaller identity. it collapses in a psychotic break or satorihttps://youtu.be/ACP8nqJJcsE?t=8
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in a satori moment, just like the lucky cyclist, the identity miraculously survives without any pain but still experiences a "wtf am *i* doing" the re-evaluation of the identity can be done from the intact identity that should've died rather than through the post mortem
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