"Evolve or Die" is pretty much the gist of Scott Alexander's Meditations on Moloch, but I don't think it's quite that simple. If it were truly necessary to squeeze out any advantage by any means necessary, civilization would look rather different, more cyberpunkish, with much more genetic engineering and cybernetics than we see, and far more frequent technodisasters. He Jiankui would not have been tossed in jail.
Though of course, a chaotic and dynamic society like that probably would be counter to oligarchic interests, as it would upend the entire context that allows them to be so powerful.
I like the thinking here but I am unsure about the historical accuracy here. Gunpowder can't properly be called a triumph of chemistry...the inventors stumbled upon the explosive properties when trying to make a medicinal recipe in 9th century China and no one had a theoretical understanding of oxidation and atomic theory for close to a millennia after. Furthermore, I see very little difference between the transition from alchemy to chemistry and say astrology to astronomy. Alchemy and astrology contained real knowledge about the behavior of materials and celestial bodies respectively. The progression towards a science wasn't marked by weaponization but rather, systemization enabling researchers to make useful predictions and invent technologies of value.
"Evolve or Die" is pretty much the gist of Scott Alexander's Meditations on Moloch, but I don't think it's quite that simple. If it were truly necessary to squeeze out any advantage by any means necessary, civilization would look rather different, more cyberpunkish, with much more genetic engineering and cybernetics than we see, and far more frequent technodisasters. He Jiankui would not have been tossed in jail.
Though of course, a chaotic and dynamic society like that probably would be counter to oligarchic interests, as it would upend the entire context that allows them to be so powerful.
I like the thinking here but I am unsure about the historical accuracy here. Gunpowder can't properly be called a triumph of chemistry...the inventors stumbled upon the explosive properties when trying to make a medicinal recipe in 9th century China and no one had a theoretical understanding of oxidation and atomic theory for close to a millennia after. Furthermore, I see very little difference between the transition from alchemy to chemistry and say astrology to astronomy. Alchemy and astrology contained real knowledge about the behavior of materials and celestial bodies respectively. The progression towards a science wasn't marked by weaponization but rather, systemization enabling researchers to make useful predictions and invent technologies of value.