Social Engineering for profit

Missplaced

Nominee Member
Oct 18, 2013
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Social engineering for the profit of the broader society, what's wrong with that? Maybe the word engineering carries too much baggage? What if we call it social cultivation or social enrichment or social guidance or social tuning? Maybe cultures are best raised "free range"?
Darkbeaver

Social engineering for the profit of the broader society... who decides what constitutes profit? If changes {engineering} gave rise to a healthier safer environment and you could convince people that this kind of change was in fact in everyone's best interests and doctors lawyers, industrialists and politicians worked toward that end...then maybe. You're still going to have to convince people whose income and prosperity comes from treating/caring for the sick and injured, lawyers who've become wealthy and influential through law suits and litigation that makes someone pay, industrialists who manufacture goods with built-in obsolescence and limited functionality that their reduced lifestyle is both adequate and appropriate. If you could eradicate components of the human psyche like greed and disproportionate self-interest, we might make some progress. The sad truth is that the only practical change to our condition requires fundamental changes in the psychology of billions of people. Utopian ideals extinguish themselves fairly quickly and aiming for the best of all possible situation/circumstance/condition simply wouldn't work. Suggesting that people adopt more tolerant views than those learned from ideological and religious training and traditions is but one hurdle, there are many. But give me some ideas and let's see what develops.
 

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
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RR1 Distopia 666 Discordia
Darkbeaver

Social engineering for the profit of the broader society... who decides what constitutes profit? If changes {engineering} gave rise to a healthier safer environment and you could convince people that this kind of change was in fact in everyone's best interests and doctors lawyers, industrialists and politicians worked toward that end...then maybe. You're still going to have to convince people whose income and prosperity comes from treating/caring for the sick and injured, lawyers who've become wealthy and influential through law suits and litigation that makes someone pay, industrialists who manufacture goods with built-in obsolescence and limited functionality that their reduced lifestyle is both adequate and appropriate. If you could eradicate components of the human psyche like greed and disproportionate self-interest, we might make some progress. The sad truth is that the only practical change to our condition requires fundamental changes in the psychology of billions of people. Utopian ideals extinguish themselves fairly quickly and aiming for the best of all possible situation/circumstance/condition simply wouldn't work. Suggesting that people adopt more tolerant views than those learned from ideological and religious training and traditions is but one hurdle, there are many. But give me some ideas and let's see what develops.

Ya, same anciet problems to resolve with the ancient arch enemy, ourselves. I did suggest free range. I have come to the conclusion that it isn't really broken. It gets good then it gets bad, it gets better then it gets worse it;s dark now but in the morning it will be light, it's the wheel of life here in hell. Abandon all hope of arresting the fundamental ratio of good times to bad. Without it the planet itself would grind to a halt and all life with it. Of course I think we should try very hard to jump on the straight and narrow from the sunny side. Societies look very bad right now, and they have countless times in the past and we're still here still struggling with the eternal problems/tests, it's those tests that build everything. Tolerance has gotten us a great lack of intolerance where we embrace abominations like war and usary and slavery all evil human enterprises still inflicting us. There seems no way out and we are condemned to traverse the valley of the shadow of death for ever it seems.