For Inefficiency - II

The original reason I thought of against efficiency was really an empirical observation, with parallel to a natural sciences maxim.
Any system naturally degenerates to higher entropy. The third law of thermodynamics says so. The only way to continuously improve (increased order…going against disorder) is to segregate the components into an efficient system apart from a degenerate one.
For eg. Essentially it could translate to the increased cleanliness inside our houses at the cost of dirtier and infertile land outside. Think of the nuclear wastage in ocean beds that has killed entire species of fishes. All for our want of efficient energy.

So increased efficiency here means you r screwing up something else somewhere, all the more. So in Capitalism, where a select few get more and more resources at their disposal without an iota of understanding of it's cost, a third world country is perhaps paying the price through it's deforestation, increased pollution, de humanization, infertile lands, pillage of natural resources etc.

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(Pardon my naivete. Apart from reading a bit of Chomsky and a bit from here and there, I really don’t have complete understanding of world systems. This is just some loud thinking. )


Historically, India has been comparatively safer from any man-made crisis than the other countries. This is because, as a nation we are highly inefficient and as such it's nigh impossible for us to effect any drastic changes. And let’s face it, as a human; none of our big decisions have ever given desired results. It's as if complete comprehension of the world is beyond us. Look at the maddening enthusiasm with which people took to globalization and western style capitalism in the last decade, and now that the world demands a different model, everyone is responding with conservatism. Think of any polarized philosophy being adopted en masse. Communism (do I have to give examples! :P), capitalism (Capitalism only survives through huge subsidies. In US it's through military (now, more than ever, US needs a war.), in Japan through public projects. It depends on continuous subjugation of smaller nations.), anarchy… any and every system if managed very efficiently will yield abominable results. Think of ‘1984’. Democracy works only because, a certain inertia, and hence inefficiency, borne out of public participation, is inherent in it. And as such no dramatic polarization is possible.

Please do share some more examples of our decisions gone unexpectedly wrong. also, i remember a link being circulated around a year back that illustrated the workings of globalisation and its ramifications environmentally through a video. post it here if u find it. thanx.

Comments

Strider said…
I have a lot of things to say about various things u mention in the post. but to start, lets perform a thought experiment. assume you are the omnipotent creator of the world. and you intend to create a world which looks simmilar to the current world. with all the animals being animals, trees being gree, rosses red and so on.
you also intend for the man to be made in you likeness. to have dominion over all the other animals. in sense thinking, using fire, tools, wheel, writing blogs and doing every human thing. except the ones which, you consider to be bad in real scenario. like obsession abt eff. tell me. how is your world going to function. all things being the same. what would you have man do differently?
Ajinkya said…
nothing.. just that whatever degeneracy happens, i would make sure it happens slowly.. u remember that graph we had where the lower the rate smoother the curve and more the area under the curve?

there has to be a balance, all the time.

i would try to find a golden mean between modern technological development and old technologies which worked in consonance with nature's survival. I would not look earth as just man's waste basket. earth belongs to other creatures too, and to our progeny too. i would abolish nukes, and modern technologies that fuck up the basic ingredient into some degenerate synthetic output that has no role in earth's any cycle.
Strider said…
I have a lot of things to say about various things u mention in the post. but to start, lets perform a thought experiment. assume you are the omnipotent creator of the world. and you intend to create a world which looks simmilar to the current world. with all the animals being animals, trees being gree, rosses red and so on.
you also intend for the man to be made in you likeness. to have dominion over all the other animals. in sense thinking, using fire, tools, wheel, writing blogs and doing every human thing. except the ones which, you consider to be bad in real scenario. like obsession abt eff. tell me. how is your world going to function. all things being the same. what would you have man do differently?

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