An In-Depth Critical Look at "Radical Transparency" and Its Challenges, Pitfalls and The Eventual Spiritual Decay and the Loss of Identification of True Virutue

in #philosophy6 years ago

I regularly come across people who talk about "Radical Transparency" as this amazing thing that's going to fix most things that's wrong with the world. I consider this to be a very narrow and misguided assumption that ignore many several facts. I first talked about this here. I only included what I found to be the most obvious fallacy in "Radical Transparency" advocates. But I see that there are eve more elegant points to be made. That's why I'm writing this post.

Steemit, Flags and Social Media


There are different people arguing for Absolute transparency bringing up many points from multiple angles. They are not completely long. But we should't forget that even after "America" died in the 20th century and the existence of USSA government turned into a spit I the face of The Founding fathers and The Constitution, we still got so many great things like the age of internet. But we also got mass surveillance, crazy high taxes and negative interest rates. Just so you know; In ancient times, a 10% tax was high enough to cause revolution. As I described in this post at the times of war, Romans were taxed 3% which should be compared to 92% of USSA.

So how does any of this relate to Flags and Social Media?


(https://steemit.com/ubi/@builderofcastles/better-than-ubi-human-reason-to-work-what-the-proponents-miss)

Smart ideas can have disastrous consequences all the while delivering the good bits. Flags were introduced to counter abuse. It was supposed to keep the accounts in check. everybody was supposed to make sure that everybody acts in a constructive manner. But look at what's happening with flag wars. The biggest abusers are the ones that are hurt the least by flags. Many people don't flag bigger accounts out of fear of retaliation or simply understanding that their voting power won't do enough damage. All of this is fine. Steemit is still beta and STEEM isn't vital to human civilization. We can very well live without it. STEEM and its front ends are optional. But "Radical Transparency" isn't.

Social media has allowed people to communicate more and more at faster and more detailed manner. We are living in an age of information. So what are the most discussed and viewed topics on Social media. I barely use these media. But I see a lot of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, celebrity feuds, Gaming stuff on YouTube, Donald Trump etc.

There is just too much information to deal with and people will go on the path of least resistance. even if somebody wants to do something, they can only do so much. look at the following post by The Free Thought Project. How much attention do you think it gets compared to a dumb Huff Post article.
https://steemit.com/news/@tftproject/public-to-be-scanned-in-real-time-as-police-body-cameras-may-soon-get-facial-recognition

Going through everything regarding a person's life is an inefficient waste of human mind. It's like going to a hotel and the staff brings you the ingredients for you to cook your own meal by yourselves. It could be an interesting experience to go through once in a while. But we are talking about an entire hotel industry revolving around us cooking our own meals. Just look at how things go viral in an age of information. The Infograph is from https://outgrow.co

The greatest ability of the human minds critical thinking and spiritual development. Now how much of the above is related to that?

  • The Tree came before the Forest
  • The Individual came before the Collective
  • The Market came before the Regulations
  • The Privacy came before the Transparency

Transparency exist only though the disclosure of private information. Public acts doesn't need transparency because they are already considered non-private. If all private information was to be mad public, either people would spend more time judging others or spend not enough time to sort through relevant information (due to apathy etc.)

"Radical Transparency" eliminates or at least disrupt the natural hierarchy of the value of information. Are you old enough to remember printed video game/computer magazines? The content on average had high value. If you look at contemporary video game journalism you get: https://steemit.com/news/@suitablybored/vice-why-are-there-so-many-black-people-in-far-cry-5 which is a hilariously cringe worthy waste. It's the same case with Democracy. It seemed like a good idea. But in reality despite all the benefits it also became a cancer on the modern civilization.

That was the Good News. time for the Bad News


In a way my profile picture is wildly relevant to this discussion. It's from Psycho-Pass where the story takes place in an authoritarian future dystopia, where omnipresent public sensors continuously scan the mental states of every passing citizen. Before you get to that i'd like to ask you to read 2 of my short storied which are sort of a Yin and a Yang.

#+1 A story about a criminal family and a young man who lost everything.
#-1 A story about a criminal family and a man who lost everything.

I've repeatedly stated that there can be Perfect Humans but never Perfect Systems. Humans evolve and transcend. A system merely changes; it doesn't transcend. Putting faith in a system is delusional and it's not going to be because you are going to be perfectly fine 99.9999% of the time. A hacker only needs to get it right one time. A Chernobyl has to screw up one time and under Murphy's law anything that can happen will happen. Under "Radical Transparency, the hackers are the ones who are well versed in the human mind. Virtue is the vanguard of the most sinister forms of evil. No law has been passed claiming to enslave people. they were meant to protect and serve.

Those who are smart enough will have so much information to manipulate people. I mentioned this in a conversation with my friend @alexander.alexis

Look at the world of investing. Even with similar info, people take different decisions. People process information at different levels. radical Transparency would take the world from those who with money and hand over the world to those who are well versed in psychology, neuroscience etc. The worst part is that money is easier to fight against. governments can be blown up. Killers can be killed back. But ideas are bulletproof. those who know to manipulate and weave ideas in the minds of people will rule without contest.

I urge you to read this post and come back if you haven't already. Now let's just say by some method you were able to figure out someone's devious manipulations. Then we have the next problem.

Force can only be stopped by Equal or greater Force


Go back to steemit flagging. Think about flagging some whale. I've seen so many accounts get destroyed in flagging wars as SP is the force of STEEM blockchain. Here it's like an MMO. It's fine if it is or isn't fair. A highly gifted individual/small group could amass enough force to deter, repel or even decimate any objecting parties.

At the risk of SPOILERS take a look


The Spiritual Decay


Do you like school? Do you think it is a good place? What's the worst thing about school when you think long term? My experience is that the school is a place where you have to memorize your math because unless yo do you math the way they tell you to do, even if you get all the answers you still wouldn't get full marks. It's a place that spread propaganda and ruin critical thinking where you learn what to think so that you wouldn't actually end up having to think.

AND there is an immense pressure to conform. I barely know few people who didn't break under that pressure. I've seen all sorts of radical free spirits. Now I see them in banks and colleges. It was just pressure. I'm no fan of Kant. But even he has his valid points.

An action done because of XYZ is not an action that is a end in itself. It's merely a means to an end like an assassin serving a king. I'm all for incentives. You can see that in my previous posts at https://coffeesource.net/vimukthi But the point of incentives is not to control but to make the right way easier. The point of incentives is to make work easier than theft. A system where everybody is watching the other goes beyond that. Think about your browser history or partners you've had sex with. Think all your online chats being visible to everybody.

When everybody can see your face wherever you turn, it is likely for your face to become a facade and not a whole lot more


People should be allowed to fail and make mistakes. This isn't something schools allow kids to do. The millennial snowflake generation(my generation) can barely stand a rejection. Even if technology somehow manage to deal with information overload and utter inefficiencies of a "Radical Transparency" model and even if we miraculously find a way against ingenious Professor Moriarty/Eurus Holmes types and manage to have enough force at disposal to use against bad actors (which is a long list of near impossibilities) we still have to deal with spiritual decay.

There are things that should be Private and there are things that should be Public. It's a Yin&Yang thing. A charity wallet should be public. My personal wallet should be private. A blog is public. A chat is private. "Radical Transparency" would chip away individuality in microscopic increments.

Keeping an eye on someone is the easiest way to make sure someone lives a virtuous life. It is also the best way to make sure that one does not "Become" virtuous. If I'm still not getting that last point across:



So think about that for few hundred minutes :-)

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