Thinking a lot about ratchets lately. Internal and external. Ratchets are more fundamental than clocks. Things that can only grow in one direction, and reversed only via destruction.
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I wonder to what extent ratchets could be avoided/reversed if they were more readily recognized
I.e. "Wait a second, we're only doing this because we feel a need to stay self-consistent / recover sunk costs / fight a pointless arms race"
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Ex:
- politicians competing to be the "toughest" on crime
- expecting ever-longer lists of paper credentials for employment
Struggling to think of more where awareness would help 🤔
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In this form I think it should be considered in arms race terms.
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On one hand, arms races probably most responsive to ratchet-awareness, because you can partially blame it on someone else. Otoh, no one would think "I'm enabling an internal ratchet" - recognition would seem to push against its continuation
What other ratchets are you pondering?
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Hmm yeah, one can think of pristine and competitive ratchets by analogy to state formation. Monopolistic momentum behind a moat vs. duopolistic momentum contesting lead position in race.
Am thinking about biology, personal life, corporations, civilization, physics processes...
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Some evolutionary ones:
- Peacocks growing ever-more flamboyant tail feathers to signal fitness until they can't fly/feed themselves
- Rabbits breeding until food in niche exhausted, population crashes
- Dog breeds getting more & more hobbled by human coddling/selection
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Human recognition of the absurd might be the most powerful halting mechanism to avoid blowup
AI might need some similar absurdity mechanism to keep from perpetual self-improvement until it exhausts all resources (paperclip problem). Not clear what the healthy limits would be
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