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Cool. Thanks for posting this, Primo !
Re: Restoration Through Catastrophe . . . -- Russ Walden Post Reply Top of thread Forum

Posted by: LateForLunch ®

01/28/2024, 22:26:43

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Possibly the Prosperity Paradox and the Leadership Paradox converge in this denouement. One of the intriguing things explored by SF writer Isaac Azimov was the notion that an analytical model of human behavior he called "Psychohistory" could enable one to anticipate the most significant acts of collective human behavior (elections, wars, famines, economic collapses) long before they occur. This mythical system enabled those who had mastered it to understand how to control the world.

That principles of human nature may be as immutable and consistent as other aspects of nature is likely untrue (too many uncontrollable chaos-related variables), so Psychohistory will prolly remain (like caseless ammo, fusion reactors and robots with the strength and mobility of humans) fiction. 

One thing that seems to be almost 100% predictable about Humanity is that catastrophes caused by large numbers of human beings acting badly or failing to act when they should, are for all intents and purposes unavoidable - regardless of how obvious or inevitable they seem beforehand. 

It's almost as if the Human Race has a reflex like vomiting - once initiated the reflex cannot be reversed. 






Modified by LateForLunch at Sun, Jan 28, 2024, 22:43:55


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