[ExI] Private and government R&D

[Tom Nowell]

Rafal wrote " Do you see rich individuals and powerful
corporations embedded in morally advanced societies routinely
squashing anyone that gets in their way? What kind of society did you
grow up in?"

Hello, I grew up in the UK, home of the world's most vicious libel laws. We have no freedom of speech here, and libel laws are often used to sue into the ground anyone who dares say nasty things about the rich.
Damien boggles at your question because he's probably used to stories of rich people buying their way out of trouble and of rich companies using lawyers to suppress the underdog. Of course, Americans could be forgiven for thinking it's people like the Scientologists who routinely squash everyone who so much as looks at them funny.
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Rafal also wrote "How many of the richest capitalists are psychopaths? How many of top-level politicians are psychopaths? Are people who ascend by
serving customers more or less likely to be psychopaths, compared to people who ascend by force, propaganda, lies, and extortion?"

That's a tough one, because most company bosses and politicians in the UK seem to have risen by propaganda and lies masquerading as customer service. Their extortion is based on making people fear that the competition is worse "Brand X is unrelialable! Company Y will cut off your utilities by accident! Political party Z will cut spending on vital services!" Company bosses are insulated from the day-to-day activities of their ordinary workforce, and politicians have little clue what the civil servants on the frontline face every day.

Rafal also wrote:"Is a society built on the principle of non-violence less or more likely to promote a psychopath into a position of power, compared to a society that enthusiastically embraces violence?"

I don't know, there aren't any major countries built on non-violence - plenty built on controlled violence, where violence is mostly used for policing and defense and aggression only used under severe provocation. as for countries that enthusiastically embrace violence - do you mean like countries in civil war, or do you mean embracing violence like the USA and USSR enthusiastically embraced the proxy war during the cold war?

Tom