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THE MIMETIC SINGULARITY
Imitation is a good survival strategy in societies with skin in the game, for only the "good" behaviors survive and remain visible to be copied.
What happens, though, when in a society, popularity itself prevents skin in the game?
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Imitation is a good survival strategy in societies with skin in the game, for only the "good" behaviors survive and remain visible to be copied.
What happens, though, when in a society, popularity itself prevents skin in the game?
(thread)
2/ In my book "The Control Heuristic", I explain how imitation is a good strategy if and only if skin in the game is enforced.
Reckless soldiers die, ineffective workers improve or lose their job & bad entrepreneurs go bankrupt: only those with a behavior worth imitating survive
Reckless soldiers die, ineffective workers improve or lose their job & bad entrepreneurs go bankrupt: only those with a behavior worth imitating survive
3/ Instead, in societies without skin in the game, imitation is not a good strategy.
Because both the good and the bad sticks around, if you don't know better and imitate those around you, you don't know if you're imitating the good or the bad.
Because both the good and the bad sticks around, if you don't know better and imitate those around you, you don't know if you're imitating the good or the bad.
4/ In this thread, I want to add a (tentative) additional concept.
THE MIMETIC SINGULARITY: the downward spiral that follows when being popular (and thus imitated) prevents skin in the game.
THE MIMETIC SINGULARITY: the downward spiral that follows when being popular (and thus imitated) prevents skin in the game.
5/ The process is described in the picture below.
The mimetic singularity is when the relationship between imitation and survival inverts.
Before, what survives gets copied.
After, what gets copied survives.
A downward spiral of maladaptation.
The mimetic singularity is when the relationship between imitation and survival inverts.
Before, what survives gets copied.
After, what gets copied survives.
A downward spiral of maladaptation.
6/ A society begins decadence, I would argue, when skin in the game is suspended.
Automatically, the bad yet popular remains popular long enough to become a source of imitation, and society dedicates itself to imitate behaviors with large, unaddressed negative side effects.
Automatically, the bad yet popular remains popular long enough to become a source of imitation, and society dedicates itself to imitate behaviors with large, unaddressed negative side effects.
7/ Importantly, what matters is not theoretical long-term skin in the game, but short-term one.
For example, an entrepreneur with a theoretical risk of bankruptcy but who gets away with breaking the law in his day-to-day has no effective skin in the game, and gets imitated.
For example, an entrepreneur with a theoretical risk of bankruptcy but who gets away with breaking the law in his day-to-day has no effective skin in the game, and gets imitated.
8/ I am worried because I can think of too many examples where the mimetic singularity has been reached in today's society, and too little awareness of it.
9/ For example, speculators being pressured into imitating other speculators who should have gone bankrupt long ago, and managers being pressured into imitating other managers who should have been fined or fired long ago.
Also: outrage, etc.
Also: outrage, etc.
10/ I just hope that effective skin in the game is restored soon enough to stop the downward spiral before the crash.
11/ There is this illusion that if someone has a net impact on society, then he should got away with the bad he does.
We can do better. We can praise the good he does and hold him accountable for the bad, so that we empower him to do more of the good and less of the bad.
We can do better. We can praise the good he does and hold him accountable for the bad, so that we empower him to do more of the good and less of the bad.
12/ More importantly, doing the above ensures that the good gets copied.
Instead, failing to do the above leads to more of the bad being imitated.
We end up as what we allow and as what we popularize.
Let's choose wisely.
Instead, failing to do the above leads to more of the bad being imitated.
We end up as what we allow and as what we popularize.
Let's choose wisely.
