And the key point behind the whole mental exercise, of beginning over from scratch, is this:

This is what an approximation of an attempt of a world to coordinate with you, should look like; this is how much of the gains from trade, you should at least expect; no more inconvenience and injury than this, should you expect from your Governance.

And if Governance ever gets too far away from that - why, forget it all, rederive it all, and start over.  Your next-best alternative to Governance, if it departs from this, is at least this; so, if the time comes, you can do Something Else Which Is Not Your Current Governance.

They run annual Oops It's Time To Overthrow The Government Festivals, in dath ilan.  Sometimes you have to defeat the Hypothetical Corrupted Governance Military.  Sometimes the Military is still made of nice people who aren't going to fire on a civilian population, during this rehearsal, but you have to distrust the Network and all of the existing politicians and Very Serious People and organize your own functional government from scratch by the end of the day.

And the point of all that is to decrease the friction costs to overthrow the Government, because that decreases the amount that Governance can be inconvenient or injurious at people, before, Governance knows, its people will overthrow it.

Well, and the point is also to more accurately estimate those friction costs.  They are, by dath ilani standards, quite high, on the order of 5% of GDP depending on how much institutional expertise got lost and how many days people had to miss work.  Nobody would lightly suggest overthrowing the Government.  That's like losing twenty days' worth of income for everyone!  One shouldn't do that without a really strong reason!

And the key point behind the whole mental exercise, of beginning over from scratch, is this:

This is what an approximation of an attempt of a world to coordinate with you, should look like; this is how much of the gains from trade, you should at least expect; no more inconvenience and injury than this, should you expect from your Governance.

And if Governance ever gets too far away from that - why, forget it all, rederive it all, and start over.  All of Governance is a dream, just as much as ownership-tags are a willing collective hallucination.  Your next-best alternative to Governance, if it departs from this standard, is at least this good; so, if the time comes, you can do Something Else Which Is Not Your Current Governance.

They run annual Oops It's Time To Overthrow The Government Festivals, in dath ilan.  Sometimes you have to defeat the Hypothetical Corrupted Governance Military.  Sometimes the Military is still made of nice people who aren't going to fire on a civilian population, during this rehearsal; and instead you have to distrust the Network and all of the existing politicians and Very Serious People and organize your own functional government from scratch by the end of the day.

And the point of all that rehearsing is to decrease the friction costs to overthrow the Government; because that decreases the amount that Governance can be inconvenient or injurious at people, before, Governance knows, its people will overthrow it.

Well, and the point is also to more accurately estimate those friction costs.  They are, by dath ilani standards, quite high, on the order of 5% of GDP depending on how much institutional expertise gets lost and how many days people have to miss work.  Nobody would lightly suggest overthrowing the Government.  That's like losing twenty days' worth of income for everyone!  One shouldn't do that without a really strong reason!

And the key point behind the whole mental exercise, of beginning over from scratch, is this:

This is what an approximation of an attempt of a world to coordinate with you, should look like; this is how much of the gains from trade, you should at least expect; no more inconvenience and injury than this, should you expect from your government.

And if Governance ever gets too far away from that - why, forget it all, rederive it all, and start over.  All of Governance is a dream, just as much as ownership-tags are a willing collective hallucination; if it turns into a bad dream, it's time to wake up.  Your next-best alternative to Governance, if it departs from this standard, is at least this good.  So, if that time comes, you can do Something Else Which Is Not Governance.

They run an annual Oops It's Time To Overthrow The Government Festival, in dath ilan.  Sometimes you have to defeat the Hypothetical Corrupted Governance Military.  Sometimes the Military is still made of nice people who aren't going to fire on a civilian population, this rehearsal; and instead you have to distrust the Network and all of the existing politicians and Very Serious People and organize your own functional government from scratch by the end of the day.

And the point of all that rehearsing is to decrease the friction costs to overthrow the Government; because lowering the cost of overthrowing Governance decreases the amount that Governance can be inconvenient or injurious at people, before, Governance knows, its people will overthrow it.

Well, and the other point is to more accurately estimate those friction costs.  They are, by dath ilani standards, quite high, on the order of 5% of GDP depending on how much institutional expertise gets lost and how many days people have to miss work.  Nobody would lightly suggest overthrowing the Government.  That's like losing twenty days' worth of income for everyone!  One shouldn't do that without a really strong reason!