The term “crisis” (in “metacrisis”) makes it sound like it’s something new and acute, but it seems that we’ve had coordination problems for all of history. Though maybe their effects are getting worse because of accelerating technological progress?
This would be surprising to me, since so much of tech progress is the creation of social coordination technologies (internet and social media platforms, cell phones and computers, new modes of transport, cheaper food and safer water that simplifies logistics of human movement, new institutions, new language and theories, new educational resources).
Perhaps, however, the explosion in social coordination technologies makes it easier for self-interested and antisocial groups to coordinate for private advantage at the expense of the public.
For example, one lens on American slavery might be a transition from:
No pro-slavery social coordination infrastructure/technology
Increasing amounts of pro-slavery coordination allow a horrific trans-Atlantic slave trade
Gradually increasing anti-slavery coordination undermine, then finally destroy the slave trade
A modern back and forth of coordination as a result of conflict pressures between human traffickers and anti-trafficking police, as well as among racist police institutions and individuals and anti-racist activists
In these scenarios of conflict, increased coordination technology is neither intrinsically good or bad. It’s just a tool that may give a net advantage to the good guys, bad guys, or neither, depending on context.
That being said, it may be that improving specific forms of coordination technology that help us toward betteer ends is still what we need the most. I’m very receptive to that view. Better voting mechanisms, better science distillation mechanisms, better institutions, better tax policy, better ways of dealing with the risks of specific forms of technological development, etc.
I guess I just think that insofar as these are concerns of the meta-crisisians, they’re also things we deal with pretty thoroughly in EA through our own lenses. I’d be curious to know what the concept of “meta-crisis” offers in terms of further clarifying the problems or proposing new solutions.
This would be surprising to me, since so much of tech progress is the creation of social coordination technologies (internet and social media platforms, cell phones and computers, new modes of transport, cheaper food and safer water that simplifies logistics of human movement, new institutions, new language and theories, new educational resources).
Perhaps, however, the explosion in social coordination technologies makes it easier for self-interested and antisocial groups to coordinate for private advantage at the expense of the public.
For example, one lens on American slavery might be a transition from:
No pro-slavery social coordination infrastructure/technology
Increasing amounts of pro-slavery coordination allow a horrific trans-Atlantic slave trade
Gradually increasing anti-slavery coordination undermine, then finally destroy the slave trade
A modern back and forth of coordination as a result of conflict pressures between human traffickers and anti-trafficking police, as well as among racist police institutions and individuals and anti-racist activists
In these scenarios of conflict, increased coordination technology is neither intrinsically good or bad. It’s just a tool that may give a net advantage to the good guys, bad guys, or neither, depending on context.
That being said, it may be that improving specific forms of coordination technology that help us toward betteer ends is still what we need the most. I’m very receptive to that view. Better voting mechanisms, better science distillation mechanisms, better institutions, better tax policy, better ways of dealing with the risks of specific forms of technological development, etc.
I guess I just think that insofar as these are concerns of the meta-crisisians, they’re also things we deal with pretty thoroughly in EA through our own lenses. I’d be curious to know what the concept of “meta-crisis” offers in terms of further clarifying the problems or proposing new solutions.