Conversation

I have a theory that the basic unit of sociological analysis is neither the individual nor the collective but the Mexican standoff. A stable 3-way (minimum) entanglement of distrustful mutuality.
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If two people have kompromat on each other, it’s safer to hold on than do an exchange and risk copies being saved. You need a mutually distrusted third party in the picture at least who either can threaten to leak to. Ideally also entangled via kompromat.
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Once 2 people know embarrassing things about each other, they’re quantum entangled or something. It’s a more intimate relationship than either friendship or enmity. That’s why games like truth or dare are popular, to mint such entanglements
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There’s something in here that explains why libertarianism is basically wrong the way classical mechanics is wrong in light of quantum phenomena
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Atomic humans on islands don’t really exist. Only entanglements all the way up to planetary complicities. Socialism is the delusion that this is a good thing rather than merely a true thing.
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Replying to
There’s some relationship to Byzantine generals here that I can’t quite figure out. BG is a simpler situation than MS. If we can formalize MS we’d have the basis for even more powerful distributed computing. It will be good-bad-ugly computing. Better than p2p.
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Maybe the way to model this is that our primary identity is attached to a 2/3 multisig scheme so Good Bad and Ugly each hold 3 keys, one of their own and one each of each of the others. Hilarity ensues.
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I have provided the vision. Now somebody go forth and make a Mexican Operating System. Version 1.0 will be called Tuco.
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Bizarro Ivan Illich. Tools of Dark Conviviality. Dark Conviviality might be my new thing. We hate each other but we’re in this together, so why not work together. Half the plots of Burn Notice are based on this.
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Who are you willing to be complicit in something with? You’ll each acquire a gun you can hold to the other’s head simultaneously. It’s the start of a beautiful relationship.
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