this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
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Communism is wonderful in theory, however due to human nature I strongly suspect it may be forever out of our reach unless we somehow develop benevolent AGI to administer the system, who are largely incorruptible and cannot be influenced by humans.
The problem isn’t that power corrupts, the real problem is that power attracts the corruptible.
We need to make any significant positions of power inaccessible to humans, or have those positions filled by people who are truly randomly selected from the general population for only one term.
there are plenty of communes on planet earth. and in my experience most art collectives (bands, improv groups, artist-owned galleries) all own their means and share the fruits of their labors even under a capitalist system.
I'd like to put a little more nuance here and argue that this thing we call "human nature" doesn't exist, or rather has very little impact. There were a couple of studies done about separated identical twins with identical genes, and the results did show a non-insignificant difference.
With this in mind, if we assume that none of us are born inherently corruptable and that it's how and where you were raised rather than whatever is in your genes, then wouldn't the current system we live in also influence how we turn out, specifically in regards to what our current values for success are (high-up position, earning a lot of money, having power and so on)?
I do agree that communism is a wonderful idea, but I disagree that AGI is the answer - humans can govern themselves as long as they're raised in a specific way that discourages things that could lead to corruption or abuse of power, which might be an even more impossible task than creating an AGI, but I do believe it's possible with more radical changes and correct people.
Here are some studies about twins if you are interested: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886922001477 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4563825/
"But human nature" is one of the shittiest arguments against communism because its just such nothingness. Like there's not proof or scientific merit behind it. And when pressed all people can say is "but my anecdotal evidence!" Or "it's just common sense" or something equally dismissive.
You're describing anarchism ;)
Or we teach all people to distrust authority and to remove bad leaders