"Don't trust something unless you know where its brain lives"
"Don't trust something unless you know where its brain lives" is a theme that sporadically pops up in fiction. Most recently in the second Harry Potter book where Ginny Weasley was given a book that was bonded to Voldemort, the Satan figure in the series.
I also vaguely remember the theme being a sub-plot in one of the Foundation books by Asimov but cannot find a reference to which one and don't want to reread the series to find it.
Some of my resistance to autonomous vehicles is that I don't know where its brain lives. I might call health-care provider or the gym and ask them to send auto-uber to my house, but what assurance do I have that the vehicle will actually deliver me to the gym or my dentist instead of J6 Jail or the local Soylent Green/Planned Eternal Euth franchise?
On a more global scale, where are the brains that are running the US Government? Can we be expected to believe that Joe Biden is the brains of the outfit?
Why does it matter?
Personal accountability is the foundation of morality. It is much easier to act in evil ways when there is no accountability, no way it can be traced back to the individual*.
I was an absentee-replacement supervisor in a factory for a while. The largest "group" I supervised had 41 employees on the roster. I learned that the only way to maintain order was to learn names very, very quickly.
I loath people who deflect responsibility. "That broken piece of equipment is not my fault. The skilled trades person must not have used the right size screws." or "Second shift also missed those bad welds, so it is not my fault." I expect people who get paid "grown-up" wages to take the azz-whippin's they earned like grown-ups. If you screwed up, own it...and get better. If you don't "own it"...if you shirk the fact that YOU HAD CONTROL...then there is very, very low probability that you will improve because your coping mechanism of shifting the blame worked.
Organisms like Lord Voldemort's diary and big bureaucracies do not have the inherent checks-and-balances of transparency. We don't know where the brains are. In the case of businesses, shareholders and/or business owners are expected to provide that function. In the case of government bureaucracies, elected officials are expected to provide that function.
*I get that "character" is how people act when nobody is listening. But there is a thing called "Moral Hazard". Industrial sized systems must be able to function even if somebody with low-character is installing lug-nuts on the wheel of your car...or purchasing IV fluids in a hospital...or sitting at a desk in HR.
I think what you're describing was also described as "The Great EnShittening", where everything goes to shit.
ReplyDeleteComplex systems cannot survive breakdowns of foundational theories.
Ultimately I see it as a greater shift within society. There is something findamental to leftist thinking where personal responsibility evaporates. We are seeing the implications of that system.
I agree with every sentence you wrote.
DeleteTHey love words like "collective" and feelz good sayings like "...it takes a village..."
Those are dog-whistles to distract you from the individual's failings.
DeleteI've pondered this for a minute. It starts in the schools at an early age. Personal responsibility was a HUGE part of growing up not more than 1 or 2 generations ago, and has been completely destroyed. Today there are no consequences for personal failures or behavior. If YOU failed, The Village didn't work hard enough FOR YOU. See how it's now the village's fault, and not yours? No individual faces blame (the elected executive leader of the village failed in their duties), it's always an amorphous blob that can't quite be named, nailed down, or perfectly encapsulated in its description. The way-out is always left wide and open.
They are losers, who know they're losers, and they create a system that not only tolerates, but advances losers. That's why there is such conflict. Our system advocates for results at all costs (which is sometimes bad), theirs advocates for good feelings over results (same-same). The two worldviews are fundamentally incompatible, like oil and water.
States Rights is supposed to be the emulsifier, but that's a topic for another post....
This! I read your cogent thoughts for enlightenment. You just explained a conflict I had nearly four years ago. Thank you for the succinct explanation. I give you credit for closing the file on that episode.
ReplyDelete"...very low probability that you will improve because your coping mechanism of shifting the blame worked." That is Gold right there.
ReplyDeleteYou’re off in the reeds Joe. You have to know where the heart is, not the brain.
The human heart is a fickle thing. It is like the gusts and breezes of summer.
DeleteIn the long run, most of those gusts and breezes are in alignment with what the brain sees as being in its economic, best interests.
ERJ, one of the biggest things we constantly emphasize in my industry is the fact of individual responsibility. That is why we have things like operator signatures and verifier signatures and two layers of review: each person is responsible for the work they are signing for, and it escalates in terms of overall responsibility as it goes up the chain (ultimately of course, Quality - my group - has the highest level as we are releasing product for market).
ReplyDeleteI do think what we are seeing more and more on the business level is that companies where the individual is allowed to shun responsibility are failing. Over time, I anticipate that this will continue - because good companies equal reliable things that people are going to have confidence to buy/see/experience.
How to instill that in the society at large? No real idea, because we carefully have removed cause and effect from almost everything. That would have to be re-established as a first principle.
Tell me the difference between Boeing and SpaceX without talking about rockets or aerospace...
ReplyDeleteYou have it in one, personal responsibility.
Watching the mechanism of America these days is like watching a V8 engine run... without its block. There's nothing actually holding the place together anymore. Kinda like shot coming out of a shotgun. All the shot comes out at the same velocity and going in the same direction. Then it starts getting influenced by wind and gravity. Without the barrel of the gun to keep the shot together and moving forward, it starts spreading out, losing speed, and dropping to the ground. That's where America is right now...
ReplyDelete"...but what assurance do I have that the vehicle will actually deliver me to the gym or my dentist instead of J6 Jail or the local Soylent Green/Planned Eternal Euth franchise?" You don't have any assurance at all. None. Zero. There, there be monsters...
I read a sci fi book recently which had a "interesting" feature discussed.
DeleteTheir auto cabs (self driving cabs), had a box that was officially police surveillance to reduce crime.
While it did that, it also had a knockout gas cylinder and a programming override - the cops could knock out any occupant, and then have them delivered to a local station.
In the book, the main characters hacked the system and used it to their advantage.
A VERY worrying concept!
Jonathan
Character is cultural. It's inherent but even more it's taught. And our culture no longer teaches character. It teaches " what's in it for me". That's human nature but it doesn't build strong flexible resilient cultures. And it's why our formerly great and accomplished society is rapidly devolving into a third world banana republic.
ReplyDeleteA few thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWhen told by an acquaintance that he has bought an electric car I'm tempted to ask him how he likes his new coal-fired one. People seem think that they are environmentally clean even though the energy is produced elsewhere. The power losses that come from turning fuel into electricity and transmitting it a long distance are considerable, making them great wasters of energy. But why ruin his day? No doubt there is much satisfaction in doing his part to save the planet.
https://drp314.substack.com/p/big-brother-under-the-hood