Read on Twitter
Have not read it, suspect I shouldn’t comment, but honestly this is literally my problem at the moment. We can extrapolate from some very hard data about multiple things and the existing math the people in charge are doing... those equations run to entropy. https://twitter.com/heartofaquamari/status/1292239535879925770
Metaphorical entropy, obviously; still plenty of energy in a system of rotting corpses where the decay process feeds microbial life, though this does involve the loss of energy through heat.
But run those equations far enough, and things only get worse.
But run those equations far enough, and things only get worse.
Unaltered, those equations cannot result in anything other than an *increase* in death, suffering, inequality, environmental devastation, and a bloated 0.00001% looking on in smug triumph, saying with faux sadness that it’s tragic, their hands are tied. Shareholders, doncha know.
All of which is preventable, because we can change how these systems work by altering our input on one end - whether we’re adding variables, altering the relationships between variables, or scrapping the math entirely (that which is not bounded by physical laws or biology).
We can’t prevent all (untimely) death, nor suffering. We can’t prevent all cases of inequality (humans can choose to be better but on balance at least a few will be trash).
But we get to redesign these equations and we get to declare that the math has to shift when things reach a certain point. We get to - and this is crucial - weight our variables.
We can declare that money - that capital - isn’t the only weight.
We can declare that money - that capital - isn’t the only weight.
We can locate value in other variables. If that seems weirdly idealistic, remember that’s what humans do, every day, when we *spend* capital. We’re locating value in housing, food, medical care - for bare minimum - deciding that life is more important.
We locate value in shiny things that make us happy, in gifts for other people and the joy that brings them, in the purchase and maintenance of pets, in all manner of things that remind us: money only has value in that we can exchange it for things we actually want (or need).
Every damn day, people do this. Councils and communities decide that they want, en masse, all sorts of things instead of money: better traffic signage, proper roads, reliable communications infrastructure, local festivals, etc etc.
And so often we lure people into investing capital with the promise of *more* capital: this project will be lucrative, we say; often because the project is about getting more people to decide that there are things *they* want more than there own capital.
It’s not hard for an individual person to say they value something more than they value having the money it costs. It’s not hard, because owning “potential” is great for long term savings against disaster but in and of itself it means very little until you use it.
What’s hard is convincing a *system* to weight the variables in a different way, because this system is in motion, and it has momentum, it has inertia, and it won’t stop until entropy holds sway and the whole thing runs down, tired and empty.
Sometimes having an analytical mind - and a cynical one - is exhausting because you’re constantly fighting this defeatist urge to extrapolate from an existing system to see how it ends.
It’s instinctive. Wildly inaccurate, too.
No one person knows all the math in this system.
It’s instinctive. Wildly inaccurate, too.
No one person knows all the math in this system.
But what I can see is that the weighting here needs to change. The math needs to change. We get to do that; we get to decide, as a society, what things we value most.
Otherwise the system will drive itself to destruction, and take us with it, and fuck’s sake, it’s *preventable.*
Otherwise the system will drive itself to destruction, and take us with it, and fuck’s sake, it’s *preventable.*
Anyways, that’s where my mind went this morning. Hope your weekend is a little less bleak, Twitter friends!
Stay safe. Stay bold!
-Doc out
Stay safe. Stay bold!
-Doc out
PS this snuggly rottweiler - lapweiler - is worth more than the capital spent on his purchase, training, food, vet care. We derive our revenue from this investment in “Amos bucks”, manifesting in cuddles, licks, happy gronks, and tail wags
