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efavdb's avatar

Phase transitions can lock groups into a shared state, eg a magnet where pointing up dominates and it’s hard to get such a system to flip to down even if down is better for some reason. Phase transitions can only exist in large systems. The macro field is not strong enough to control all atoms in a smaller system.

A complementary point about human organizations: when faced with an ambiguous challenge, each individual may have a different understanding of the goal. If they don’t align, their efforts might not add up to much, or they may even work against each other. One might imagine it’s easier to align in small groups via rational argument.

So… a small group is needed both to explore options and rationally debate / align, while a large group will confer the benefit of alignment but it will be along some locked in direction - one that might be suboptimal and also one that is inflexible and hard to change.

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Stephen Lindsay's avatar

I think you are getting to an important understanding here. The focus on technology in and of itself as a means to a future state are misplaced. The ecosystem in which tech, knowledge, innovation either thrives or stagnates is downstream of other cultural factors - psychological and metaphysical factors, values, or what I would call the spiritual state of affairs of mankind. If this is out of sync with reality and with pro-social norms, then large-scale societal innovation will not thrive. I tend toward pessimism but hopefully my pessimism is misplaced.

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