The (Bright) enlightenment of the Renaissance was to raise society from the dark anarchy of decentralized warlordism a.k.a. feudalism into the collective light of art, culture, finance, governance, central banking, usury and top-down order.
Now the (Dark) enlightenment pushes us from the order into the decentralized disorder (where in Shannon entropy disorder means maximizing the number of least probable possibilities i.e. maximizing degrees-of-freedom and diversity).
This is the pendulum of Contentionism... We are headed into the coinductive age where the advances are to destructively peel off freedom from the monolithic whole, instead of constructively structure the chaos in collected forms.
The fundamental goal is maximizing degrees-of-freedom.
Degrees-of-freedom is the number of potential orthogonal (independent) configurations, i.e. the ability to obtain a configuration without impacting the ability to obtain another configuration. In short, degrees-of-freedom are the configurations that don't have dependencies on each other.
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This universal trend towards maximum independent possibilities (i.e. degrees-of-freedom, independent individuals, and maximum free market) is why Coase's theorem holds that any cost barrier (i.e. resisting force or inefficiency) that obstructs the optimum fitness will eventually fail. This is why decentralized small phenomena grow faster, because they have less dependencies and can adapt faster with less energy. Whereas, large phenomena reduce the number of independent configurations and thus require exponentially more power to grow, and eventually stagnate, rot, collapse, die, and disappear.
As shown earlier in the economic devastation thread unrestrained socialism by its very nature limits degrees-of-freedom. Society is trapped in a cycle of ever increasing economic inefficiency which is the equivalent of a loss of degrees-of-freedom. Our collective lack of understanding of the fundamental cause will result in attempted "fixes" that will worsen the underlying problem.
Similarly, anarchism by its very nature limits degrees-of-freedom. Unrestrained anarchism will quickly exceed the error threshold at which point knowledge is destroyed rather then created. Unrestrained anarchism increases short term fitness at the cost of long term optimization/adaptation. In a fitness landscape anarchism steepens the curve driving the population to the nearest local optima. Individuals not at the local optima are destroyed their uniqueness obliterated. This destruction impacts the ability of the system to obtain another configuration and thus limits degrees of freedom.
For example, there would be gaps (i.e. errors in fitness) between a bicycle chain and a curved shape it is wrapped around, because the chain can only freely bend (i.e. without permanent bending) at the hinges where the links are joined. Each hinge is a degree-of-freedom, and the reciprocal of the distance between hinges is the degrees-of-freedom per unit length. Employing instead a solid, but flexible metal bar, the metal would remain fit to the curve only with a sustained force. The resisting force is a reduced degrees-of-freedom and an error in fitness. Permanent bending to eliminate the resisting force, reduces the degrees-of-freedom for future straightening some of the bend for wrapping to larger curves or straight shapes.
Using this analogy unrestrained socialism is using a solid but flexible metal bar forced to the curve using sustained force supplied via expropriation. Unrestrained anarchism is eliminating the resisting force via permanent bending reducing the degrees-of-freedom for future straightening of the bend. Contentionism is the balance of the two forces. Contentionism is our bicycle chain with hinges.
The optimum should maximize the search done through anarchism subject to constraint via socialism to limit the loss of information already gained.
The role of socialism is to act as a dynamic constraint and smooth the fitness curve. Critically, socialism must be prevented at all cost from warping the fitness curve and creating false local optima. Socialism can only function via expropriation of resources from the fit. If socialism is permitted to create false optima it will progressively pool individuals into this falsehood. The optima can thus only be sustained by ever increasing expropriation on the fit leading to the eventual collapse of the system and the total loss of the dynamic constraint. This way lies the jungle.
Socialism has been allowed to grow to the point where it has created multiple false optima. These are set to require ever increasing expropriation from the fit. The end result is
Economic Devastation. To solve this requires a solution to the power vacuum. I am hopeful that truly anonymous cryptocurrency can help perform this function. The power vacuum starts to break down once government loses the ability to debase the currency. Even a truly distributed non anonymous cryptocurrency that cannot be debased would be a significant improvement over our current system. It would give us an opportunity to retire fiat debt and force governments to tax for their spending rather then simply debasing the currency. My hope is that cryptocurrency will eventually force socialism to live on a fixed income (taxation of the physical economy). Socialism would then lack the resources to create systemic false optima. The danger of collapse would ease and stability of the dynamic constraint would be achieved.