On Money, The Upvote and the Iron Maiden (not the band)
I was thinking about what I consider the worst human inventions that society has ever produced. In order:
- Money
- The upvote
The Iron Maiden(not the band)
I've long held that money is the most bizarre and horrible invention to cross the planet. We do bad things to each other over it, countless people have died because of it, some people live lavishly because they have lots of it and others sleep in alleyways because they have none of it. Wars have been fought over it. Self-worth is usually tied to how much you have of it. People typically argue "well, what's the alternative then?" That I don't know. I don't even know if it's possible to run a society without it. A somewhat recent study here found that even the concept of a guaranteed income wouldn't be possible. I also heard there were serious flaws in that study though, like non-residents being eligible for it. I had no idea why that would even be considered.
Nonetheless, the reason I maintain that money is the single worst human invention is because it doesn't actually exist. It's a collective idea that the world agrees upon each and every day. You could wake up and decide it doesn't have any value, and it would be true for you. If ten people got together and agreed on the same thing, then money no longer meant anything for those 10 people. If the entire world got together and agreed that money doesn't have any value, it wouldn't in the decided timeframe. The world would completely change simply because of a collective idea. I could almost see it as a day of global holiday. A day where money meant nothing, the world becomes a totally different place where you'd look at a Ferrari and a Honda Civic for what they're comprised of and what their function is, instead of their represent. But most importantly, people could reflect on all the lives lost over over a figment of our imagination going on for thousands of years.
Part 2. The Upvote
Somewhat similarly, the upvote/downvote/like/dislike or worse the dreaded reaction emoji has seemingly done similar damage with its inception. When I grew up on the internet in the late 90's and early 2000's, forums didn't have metrics like that. Replies were ordered in terms of response time, there was a view count and that's it. When social media became "gamified" I heard there was oodles of money invested into figuring out how to make it more addictive; actual people in lab coats paid to figure out how to make it more addictive.
The upvote/like seemed innocent enough at the beginning I would imagine. I've mostly avoided social media my whole life, so I wasn't really cognizant of what it was like in the beginning. But I'd imagine that happening to have a comment with the most likes (or many likes) felt good in the early days, rather than the inversion I'm sensing today which is curating our online dialogue for the most upvotes. Even then, when people started getting addicted to these "fake internet" points (which is really a misnomer because those points are linked to actual dopamine spikes) and curating their dialogue online for the purpose of a dopamine spike, that wasn't actually that bad either. What really became bad is that the upvote/like (conversely the downvote/dislike) organized ourselves into neat little chambers to accrue even more upvotes, but also a sense of belonging. I say more upvotes because if you fit into an echo chamber, then almost everyone is on the same page and more likely to receive upvotes from like-minded people. This seems to foster a sense of belonging, which isn't bad in of itself. There's no problem in wanting a community to fit into, but the downside of these gamified echo chambers is that it's antithetical to discussion. Like I said, people carefully curate their selves for metrics, and in echo chambers there's a group cohesion going on to maintain the echo chamber. If someone comes along with a differing opinion it's driven out of the echo chamber to maintain the homeostasis.
In one example, an inventor came to a reddit sub to pitch his invention. It was an existing technology, but had shrunk it down from the commercial setting of 30ft in a warehouse to the size of an espresso maker. The invention made the hobby vastly easier because of the way it worked. When he came to pitch the idea, how do you think he was received? They hated him! They said all sorts of bad things about the invention that weren't true, they even attacked his character until one brave soul with a Youtube following paid for the device, reviewed and said "this is a game changer, this makes better product than any device I've ever used". The guy made $200,000 in sales overnight. The point is, these little echo chambers feel good, but stirring the pot vis-a-vis meaningful discussion isn't something to shy away from, but begrudgingly invited. I say begrudgingly because even I shy tend to shy away from meaningful discussion, especially these days.
That leads me into the next element. These echo chambers that were all so comfortable in these days have bled into offline behavior. Next time you have a radically different opinion from someone else or better yet a group of people, say exactly what's on your mind, but look closely at the reaction. You'll see slightly tucked chins, narrowed eyes, a sharp inhalation, slight lean forward, they're ready for battle! The echo chamber has to defend itself, more importantly it cannot fracture. But most importantly you don't want to be "downvoted" irl. To me at least, it seems that even our offline dialogue is increasingly becoming something to win than something that used to be welcome. If your idea/opinion is wrong... that's all it is. It needs to be abandoned/eschewed or changed, not something battle to fight simply for the sake of winning. I call this dynamic "verbal combat", I think the technical name is sophistry.
This is a perfect time to mention my hero Diogenes of Sinope, he'd probably say something like "if you agree with this post and toast it, you're part of the problem".
Part 3. The Iron Maiden (Not the band)
I somewhat recently found out that the Iron Maiden likely never existed as a torture device. So I had lost my longtime 3rd worst human invention. Yes, technically we could swap it with the brazen bull which was apparently a real thing. But I had decided on a different one before I learned of the brazen bull.
What I consider the 3rd worst human invention is pineapple as pizza topping...hatred! You thought I was going to say as a topping but you're wrong. I love pineapple on pizza, I even go a step further and do pepperoni instead of the usual ham, that's how much I like it. See, if you order "Hawaiian pizza" it becomes a somewhat socially acceptable idea, so much so that it's a commonly listed style and people are banding together against it. In one case, a pizzeria jacked up their price to over $120 for the topping choice.
And then it hit me: olives. I love green olives, even as a snack alone. But I don't like it on pizza. And so I'd be a hypocrite to be pro-pineapple myself, object to the anti-pineapple movement and then refuse green olives in one place but like them in another. I think I've finally seen the light.
But no, I don't. That's what I am... a hypocrite. So there it is. Hope you enjoyed this long post.