My research focuses on the people who have had the most impact on society and history.
We call those people Great Founders, those who founded exceptionally functional and long-lived institutions, affecting society long after they are gone: samoburja.com/great-founder-…
3/n
Great institutions are founded and piloted by great founders. But no founder lives forever. What happens to the institution when they are gone?
In this essay, I describe one of the biggest problems for institutional longevity, the Succession Problem: samoburja.com/the-succession…
4/n
The ancient Romans were unusually skilled in many areas of social organization and statecraft.
One of their most interesting innovations was the practice of adult adoption, which was their unique solution to the Succession Problem: samoburja.com/how-roman-empe…
5/n
On paper, Botswana should be a failed state. It is landlocked, dependent on diamond mining, and suffers greatly from the HIV epidemic.
And yet, by solving the Succession Problem, Botswana’s elites have created a stable and prosperous nation: palladiummag.com/2019/05/09/wha…
6/n
Law, education, social norms, even the concept of politeness: these things can be taken for granted as natural. But, at one time, they were novel. Someone designed and implemented them for a purpose.
Knowledge, like all things, decays and is lost without intentional human preservation.
To hand down knowledge across generations, we must deliberately cultivate traditions of knowledge. If we fail, our traditions may die, or become lost altogether: samoburja.com/on-the-loss-an…
8/n
We may feel like we have a good grasp of antiquity, but we only have 13% of any writing from ~2000 known ancient Greek authors.
The vast majority of knowledge is not publicly recorded, but private, tacit, or lost. medium.com/the-long-now-f…
9/n
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It should be someone who has a thorough mastery of your social world. Who doesn't need it. You switch social worlds with him to a wider one where you both thrive.
1/2
1. Check the edge of communities that share your values. Either a new entrant, a heretic or just geographically distant.
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@Aella_Girl 2. He should be liked by most in community, while honestly and jovially ignoring something usually important to it. Coin some questions and ask around for who might make such an impression
3. Debate your values while paying attention to body sensations. Check if he cracks.
3/3
Far more people watch YouTube than like to admit. Not a bad thing! It has facilitated a revolution in the transfer of knowledge: samoburja.com/the-youtube-re…
Here is a thread of all my videos, organized as an overview on how I see the world and where it is going
1/n
Everyone has an implicit theory of history. Usually inconsistent and incoherent without explication and conscious work, it will nonetheless be the basis of much of your action in the world. With this concept in mind, what is yours?
Watch here:
2/n
What is the best methodology to learn something as vast and cross-disciplinary as history?
In this video, we try to bridge the gap from the overwhelming amount of historical facts to a coherent story of what actually happened. Watch here:
3/n
It is amazing nearly everyone that comments participates in good faith and an eagerness to learn. Grateful! Thank you! 😄
One of the best parts of orienting my thinking towards the public has been learning from those who write to me. Keep it up✊
Some of the things learned on road to 10k:
You don't have to fit into a neat box after all.
My interests are origin of science, industrial policy, political theory, history of civilization, long lived institutions... and our corner of twitter somehow gets this about me!
1/4
If you love discussing ideas in person, and they use twitter, tweets @ each other make for good bookmarks to follow up in person.
When you link something in email people skip, when you link it on Twitter they read.
2/4
Thinking biological immortality makes things meaningless is cope, but a very human cope. We're stuck mortal so we make the most of these rationalizations.
1/4
To say old age isn't worth it because of frailty is evading the real argument. To equate immortality with being unable to die even if you wish is also evading the real argument.
2/4
A piece of evidence on underlying human preferences: At every opportunity to extend our health-span we do so. Healthy chosen very long, possibly infinite, life coincides very closely with people's revealed preferences.
3/4