| QotD |
[25 Aug 2009|05:25am] |
|
"My problem with Objectivism is the same problem I have
with doctrinaire Communism; they are both, in engineering
parlance, trivial solutions. "When you try to model
any complex system you often find yourself trying to solve a
complex mathematical model with many parameters. You want a
number to plug into each that makes the whole thing balance. Very
early on in learning how to do this you discover that setting
some of the key parameters to zero lets you do this much more easily, but the
result is useless because it tells you nothing about a realistic
system. In a classic predator/prey population model, for
instance, you can easily set the number of rabbits to be zero,
and find it very easy to solve for the number of foxes (also
zero). This is a valid solution, but a useless one for modelling
population dynamics. "And, IMHO, extreme political
theories do this with human society. 'Let's set X to zero!' the
Objectivists/Communists/whatever exclaim, where X is variously
altruism, property rights or some other aspect of society that
they first assume can be reduced to a single number and then
further assume can be switched off by sheer Application of Will.
But their pretty little toy society that results is a trivial
solution to real-world social concerns; unrealistic, unhelpful
and downright unachievable unless you overcome that pesky human
reluctance to have our deep-seated social goals reprogrammed for
us. Which is why the Communists end up resorting to Gulags, and
the Objectivists don't even get that far, because it turns out
that even trying to beat altruism out of people doesn't
work."
![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
major_clanger,
2009-08-16</p>
|
|