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0 pointsTeMPOraL10y ago0 comments

> I want lying to be considered as the worst crime. I want a currency that's built on trust. I want every commitment and promises to be tracked and evaluated. I want fairness, and it starts with understanding reality.

Hell yes. I too want people to start treating lying with seriousness it deserves. Lying, lying, lying. It's the thing that rots and destroys our societies. I too keep repeating that civilization starts and ends with trust. Trust people have in the system, towards their leaders, and towards each other. The less trust people have, the more defensive they get, more stupid things they do, and the less efficient everything becomes.

A perfect example is the growth of various anti-science movements, anti-vaccination being a prominent case. Where do you think it comes from? Many like to say that anti-vaxxers are simply stupid, can't comprehend biology or are motivated reasoners. But the reality is simpler, and you can see it by just observing them carefully. They are normal people, like everyone else. They want to be healthy and happy. They want their children to be healthy and happy. The only real difference is that they had their trust in authority broken on a serious level. They don't trust doctors, scientific consensus and government health organizations.

Is this surprising? Frankly, no. Because all of those authorities lie. They lie fucking big, and then they lie small. Not a day goes by when we don't hear about corrupt politicians, when we don't see bullshit papers published in respected journals, when we don't learn a drug is a scam, or plain dangerous. Governments lie, and so do businesses, big and small. They lie in ads, they cheat in stores, they sell us crap - from grocery store washing stale meat in dishwasher fluid through planned obsolescence to good old lying about specs and working hard to silence disgruntled customers.

Frankly, I sometimes wonder why I still trust anyone but people I know personally. I'd like to say that it's because of education, because I can evaluate claims critically. But it's bullshit - a dedicated liar will run circles around everyone but the few smartest people. The truth is, I'm talking a calculated risk every day. And so are the anti-vaxxers. They end up hurting people. But that's not because they're evil or stupid. It's because they've broken under the avalanche of lies.

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miguelrochefort10y ago

I completely agree with you.

In a future where "proofs" will be manufactured easily, you can only trust witnesses. For that to work, you need to know that person says the truth. The most in-demand traits for a person (or smart agent or service) in the future will be "trust" (honesty, predictability, reliability).

In a world too complex to do everything yourself (milk the cow, mill the wheat, grow the tomatoes, to make a pizza), we need specialization and delegation. Again, delegating can only be seamless when interacting with parts whose "trust" is effectively tracked and measured.

The donated organ won't go to the first person to ask for it, or the person with the most money. It will go to the best human, whose value might be tightly correlated with their trust score.

Big data, IoT, AI. All the big technologies of the present and future will increasingly rely on our ability to predict the future. That's pretty much what logistics is. You can't predict the future without a reliable system. Again, your predictions are just as solid as the weakest member in your chain. One component lies (or doesn't do as promised), and the whole prediction breaks. That could mean minutes of commuting lost, or millions of people dead. Don't lie, kids.

We need a more general term that encompasses more than just lying. A person needs to accurately understand his abilities in order to commit to a task. Failing to do so affects one's score as if they did lie. I don't see them as being different things. If you misinterpret something and communicate that interpretation, that's also a "lie".

In any case, I think the human brain is losing a lot of energy trying to decide what to say and not say, and whether what an other person say is sincere, polite, or plainly misleading. We're not as smart as we could be, because of this social cancer. That's probably what destroys kids as they grow.

Being honest at a job interview is a sure way not to get the job. Better study the buzzwords the day before and bullshit your way thought. Repeat if you want to reach the top.