Network States

Geopolitics

It feels like promotion of virtue is a valuable social function and neither bigcorps nor government are incentivized or interested in doing it in the US?

Possibly explains the popularity of "12 rules for life" etc. Also I feel like it's an underappreciated theme in @balajis.eth's writings on network states.

Yes. Virtue is good because it’s decentralized self-control. The more virtuous the society, the more self-disciplined, the less need for centralized law enforcement, rules, and punishment in general.

Virtue is why we can have nice things.

Is there a distinction between virtue and trustworthiness?

Healthcare investor by day, web3/AI tinkerer by night. 🟪 Host: /venturecapital /theitinerant

Yes, eg. someone can be fully honest and trustworthy but still be lazy and eat unhealthy food every day.

Hypothetically speaking, if you were to over-index on one (virtue or trustworthiness) in screening citizens for a network state, which would you choose?

I agree. 🫡

Lmk if you ever want to explore this line of thinking further.

1. Can trustworthiness be taught? 

2. Or is it a matter of discerning and filtering the trustworthy from untrustworthy?

I want to say 1, but my gut says 2. 

Reality is likely somewhere in the middle.

I'd take trustworthiness; hard to make any kind of progress on other dimensions (incl virtue) if people constantly have to worry if their fellow citizens are about to betray them.