[ExI] Effectiveness of democracy as a result of selection bias

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/6/30 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>:

> I disagree.  I don't think there will ever be such a thing as a post-scarcity society.  As long as there are unmet wants, there will be scarcity.  And I also disagree that statism -- whether in its democratic form or something else -- is necessary or inevitable either.  I think de-legitimizing the state can happen and this can happen in variety of ways -- not necessarily in a purely ideological change where everyone wakes up and sees that statism really is worse than the alternatives.

The post-scarcity society will not come by addressing supply, but by
addressing demand. A radical way to do this would be to have direct
control of your brain so that you can modify your desires and second
order desires. If I have $1000 I want $2000; but if instead of going
to the trouble getting the extra thousand I could modify my mind so
that I could be in every way *just as satisfied* with the thousand I
already have, why wouldn't I? The end result would be that I adjust my
mind so that I am motivated to do only those things which I consider
of intrinsic worth, or those things which I think I *ought* to
consider of intrinsic worth.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou