DEFINITION: AGENCY Agency is the capacity for human beings to identify opportunities and make choices that are consistent, correspondent, existentially possible, and coherent with and within reality, and to act upon them, unimpeded by knowledge limitation (ignorance), intellectual limitation(intelligence), mindfulness limitation (impulse), physical limitations(body), instrumental limitations(technologies), resource limitations, the impediments of others and their organizations into norms, laws, institutions, polities, and armies. Perfect agency would require omniscience, omnipotence, and complete insulation from impulse. Simon Ström translates Agency to the language of physics: AGENCY = POTENTIAL ENERGY Agency = potential energy (PE) Force = applied energy (F) Event = Impulse (Imp), [force vector + temporal dimension] Consequence = displacement vector (s) Action = work (W) Externalities = Waste heat (h) W = F * s
Source: Original Site Post
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Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”
via Steve Pender “The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated.” – Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”
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Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”
via Steve Pender “The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated.” – Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”
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The Cost of Social Optimism
by Steve Pender Extending someone the privilege of assuming them to be trustworthy is costly (risk of theft, personal harm). Not extending the privilege of trust is also costly (extra security costs, loss of trade). Granting trust to one person but not another hinges on choosing which costs you want to pay at that time. Since humans are more averse to losing what they have than losing a potential gain, humans err on the side of protecting themselves and property, that is, they more often choose to pay for costs that reduce their losses. If you want to gain privilege, you must first convince the privilege-grantor that not trusting you is more expensive than trusting you. This means you must work on reducing your perceived risk to them. If people who look like you have a much higher rate of violence, you have 3 essential choices: 1) change your look enough that you are no longer categorized with them, 2) reduce the rate of violence of those who look like you so you are no longer categorized as a risk, or 3) increase the cost for others to perceive you as a risk. This 3rd option only reinforces the idea that you are in fact a risk (someone who imposes involuntary costs), and is therefore counterproductive.
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The Cost of Social Optimism
by Steve Pender Extending someone the privilege of assuming them to be trustworthy is costly (risk of theft, personal harm). Not extending the privilege of trust is also costly (extra security costs, loss of trade). Granting trust to one person but not another hinges on choosing which costs you want to pay at that time. Since humans are more averse to losing what they have than losing a potential gain, humans err on the side of protecting themselves and property, that is, they more often choose to pay for costs that reduce their losses. If you want to gain privilege, you must first convince the privilege-grantor that not trusting you is more expensive than trusting you. This means you must work on reducing your perceived risk to them. If people who look like you have a much higher rate of violence, you have 3 essential choices: 1) change your look enough that you are no longer categorized with them, 2) reduce the rate of violence of those who look like you so you are no longer categorized as a risk, or 3) increase the cost for others to perceive you as a risk. This 3rd option only reinforces the idea that you are in fact a risk (someone who imposes involuntary costs), and is therefore counterproductive.
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The Etymology of Agency
Yes, agency, like truth, or infinity, or perfection, or godhood, or moving half-way across the couch, or half-way across zeno’s line, describes an infinitely logarithmic curve. I always take my terms, whenever possible from the existing sciences, and ‘correct’ (redefine) the term. In social science, one’s social, economic, and political agency is limited by ‘structure’ (institutions), and their (socialist) implication is that differences in income are an institutional choice not a necessity of human cooperation (natural law). In social science then, we are considered to be equal in ability but unequal in institutional benefit. So I extended Agency by correcting the falsehood of equality and necessity.
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The Etymology of Agency
Yes, agency, like truth, or infinity, or perfection, or godhood, or moving half-way across the couch, or half-way across zeno’s line, describes an infinitely logarithmic curve. I always take my terms, whenever possible from the existing sciences, and ‘correct’ (redefine) the term. In social science, one’s social, economic, and political agency is limited by ‘structure’ (institutions), and their (socialist) implication is that differences in income are an institutional choice not a necessity of human cooperation (natural law). In social science then, we are considered to be equal in ability but unequal in institutional benefit. So I extended Agency by correcting the falsehood of equality and necessity.
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Diversity Creates Isolation
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-cigna-study-reveals-loneliness-at-epidemic-levels-in-america-300639747.html -
Diversity Creates Isolation
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-cigna-study-reveals-loneliness-at-epidemic-levels-in-america-300639747.html -
Positive Money
http://www.positivemoney.eu/2016/12/ecb-confirms-helicopter-money-legally-feasible/POSITIVE MONEY (“Helicopter Money”) Direct Redistribution of Liquidity to Consumers (Citizens). I’ve been talking about this forever, and written it into the new constitution. But there is a small group in europe that’s put together a web site and initiative. The EU is much more complicated than the states. And they are … overly protective of investors (which I don’t recommend), so it’s actually quite a bit easier in the states. My proposal was to buy (nationalize) Mastercard (good infrastructure, horrible company), and use their network for direct redistribution of liquidity (money). http://www.positivemoney.eu/2016/12/ecb-confirms-helicopter-money-legally-feasible/ http://www.positivemoney.eu/2016/10/report-ecb-helicopter-money/ (I’ve contacte them) Thanks to Moritz Bierling for the head’s up.