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THE Nth PRINCIPLE

Again: the ten principles are general guidelines to follow, not fixed rules.

But why is that?

It’s not just to annoy Norma!

It’s because there’s one core principle that overrides ALL others…

A principle that will always apply, no matter how fancy our algorithms and societal systems become:

There is no set of rules that perfectly describe Win-Win

As Such, wise mindS must always remain in the loop

This is the Nth principle of

Win-Win.

(In fact it’s technically an axiom, which means it is far more fundamental than a principle)

erm ok. why?

The great Western philosophers of history made huge strides in defining ethical frameworks for life. For example:

  • Immanuel Kant’s deontology, which claims that our ethics come from from universal, rational rules (like “lying is bad”) and that our actions should be judged by how much they adhere to these rules.

  • Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism, which instead of focussing on pre-defined rules, judge actions based entirely on the value of their consequences. 

  • Plato and Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, which prioritizes the internal development of “good moral character”. (i.e. instead of providing rules or definitions, Virtue Ethics wants us to cultivate good habits and traits so we INSTINCTIVELY make ethical choices).

All of these frameworks carry deep wisdom. But they also all have flaws. For example:

  • A strict deontologist would argue that lying is always wrong, even if a dangerous stalker comes to your door and asks whether their intended victim is home

  • A strict utilitarian would argue that it is always better to sacrifice the few in order to save the many, even if those being sacrificed are completely innocent.

  • A strict virtue-ethicist’s claim of “just be someone of a good moral character” isn’t practically helpful in real situations where you have to make a tough trade-off e.g. choosing how to distribute limited rations in a famine.

Each framework has edge-cases and situations where they fail to make sense. So which one to use, especially in this age of increasingly extreme moral dilemmas?

The answer is: IT DEPENDS ON THE SITUATION!

In other words: some source of wise intelligence will always be required to make tough judgment calls.

BTW the Eastern philosopher Laozi figured this out nearly 2,500 ago! After all, his famous book - the Tao Te Ching - opens with

“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao”

To put that in a systems lens: you can never perfectly the rules of a system from within the system.

(and this was finally proven mathematically in 1931, so bro was really ahead of his time)

So, again, the nth principle:

There is no set of rules that PERFECTLY describe Win-Win

As Such, wise mindS must always remain in the loop

If we want to build a truly win-win world — especially in the age of hyper powerful technology — we must develop our wisdom first and foremost.

There is no perfect set of algorithms waiting to be programmed.

It’s therefore silly to pin all hopes on superintelligent machines to save us from ourselves.

A truly flourishing and survivable future will always certainly require many wise minds to help guide it.

It will always require you.

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