Vitalik Buterin
@vitalik.eth
I am noticing that the most successful new ideologies of the past decade are very object-level (prescriptions on specific issues) and quite little meta-level (social processes for making decisions on object-level issues). Examples: * Abstract libertarianism feels much weaker than 10 years ago. But issue-specific versions of it are quite successful: YIMBY (housing), the crypto space * e/acc (it's about all technology in theory, but ends up being about AI in practice) * The largest cluster in effective altruism morphed from being meta-level ("think harder to making sure your donations are going where they can do the most good!") to object level (AI safety, with a little bit of animal welfare and global public health) * Longevity movement Maybe network states and Glen and Audrey's Plurality movement are two exceptions - but in general the above feels like a strong pattern. Any ideas why this meta level -> object level shift seems to be taking place?
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Cobe Liu
@liucobe
Reminds me of the lack of a unification between relativity and quantum mechanics. Meta ideological coherence requires intuition and I would argue at least some faith. We have been taught to be skeptical and adhere in our beliefs to Karl Popper’s scientific falsifiability. Meta ideologies are often not directly easily falsifiable so they deviate from this holy prop. Skepticism is healthy but does not leave room for faith and intuition. This skepticism is not a new development but one which has been brewing since the enlightenment. Maybe it has become more widespread in the past 10 years as skepticism has become a more helpful tool when confronted with non trustworthy media institutions.
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