Science
Related: About this forumQuestion about math and politics.
Does anybody know literature about this topic?
My premise:
- Every political system can be quantified by variables like individual political sovereignty, individual legal freedoms, inherent rights, accountability of rulers, economic inequality, pace of progress, availability of ressources/knowledge...
- If we assume an individual person inside society to be an "atom", then the interactions between the atoms and the attributes of society as a whole can be traced back to the variables.
- Depending on the variables, there are various "thermodynamic/statistic" phases that society can take on (comparisons not to be taken too literal): gas (anarchy), liquid (tribalism), semi-crystalline (feudalism), polycrystalline (pluralistic democracy), monocrystalline (soviet democracy), pseudo-crystalline (tyranny)...
My idea:
If we manage to express political systems in purely abstract terms, we will be able to calculate and explore entirely new political systems. Political systems that have simply never formed naturally in human societies. Political systems that can be tailor-made to express specific desired societal attributes.
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)Political systems seem to be like physical systems, operating according to ordered chaos, and subject to influences and perturbations we can't quantify.
6chars
(3,967 posts)See where you can take your idea.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire. It was first introduced in the five short stories (19421944) which would later be collected as the 1951 novel Foundation.
bananas
(27,509 posts)I'll try to find a decent summary later.
Used historical cycles to see where we are and where we're going.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West
bananas
(27,509 posts)Last edited Sun Aug 23, 2015, 01:44 AM - Edit history (1)
http://21stcenturywaves.com/the-maslow-window-a-brief-summary/edit to add: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12289887
bananas
(27,509 posts)Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)I regularly have to deal with libertarians who have a theory about how socio-political-economic systems should run (well, they actually have a set of theories), theories that are not actually based in reality. I have the same reaction to Marxists. I get very leery about such theories, since the adherents of these theories, given a choice between what the real world says and what the theory says, pick the theory every time.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)All those nice theories how the economy works and none of them work when the consumer is an actual person instead of a homo economicus.
In science, such theories would normally be discarded or at the very least be annotated with caveats in which situations the theory sucks and how it sucks. But economists love their models too much to let something like failures get in their way.
Why did nobody foresee the collaps of 2008? Because they used faulty models that have been around since always.
bananas
(27,509 posts)by George Ade:
THE FABLE OF THE PARENTS WHO TINKERED WITH THE OFFSPRING
A married Couple possessed two Boys named Joseph and Clarence. Joseph was much the older. His Parents brought him up on a Plan of their Own. They would not permit him to play with other Boys for fear that he would soil himself; and learn to be Rude and Boisterous.
So they kept Him in the House, and: his Mother read to him about Little Rollo, who never lied or cheated, and who grew up to be a Bank President, She seemed to think that a Bank President was above Reproach.
Little Joseph was kept away from the Public Schools, and had to Play Games in the Garret with two Spindly Little Girls. He learned Tatting and the Herring-Bone Stitch. When he was Ten Years of age he could play Chop-Sticks on the Piano; his Ears were Translucent, and his Front Teeth showed like those of a Gray Squirrel.
The other Boys used to make Faces at him over the Back Fence and call him "Sis."
In Due Time he went to College, where he proved to be a Lobster. The Boys held him under the Pump the first Night. When he walked across the Campus, they would whistle, "I don't Want to Play in Your Yard." He began to drink Manhattan Cocktails, and he smoked Hemp Cigarettes until he was Dotty. One Day he ran away with a Girl who waited on the Table at his Boarding House, and his Parents Cast him Off. At Present he has charge of the Cloak Room at a Dairy Lunch.
Seeing that the Home Training Experiment had been a Failure in the case of Joseph, the Parents decided to give Clarence a large Measure of Liberty, that he might become Acquainted with the Snares and Temptations of the World while he was Young, and thus be Prepared to side-step the Pitfalls when he was Older. They sent him to the Public Schools; they allowed him to roam at large with other Kids, and stay out at Nights; they kept Liquor on the Sideboard.
Clarence stood in with the Toughest Push in Town, and thus became acquainted with the Snares and Temptations of the World. He learned to Chew Tobacco and Spit through his Teeth, shoot Craps and Rush the Can.
When his Father suggested that he enter some Business House, and become a Credit to the Family, he growled like a Boston Terrier, and told his Father to go Chase Himself.
At present, he is working the Shells with a Circus.
Moral: It all depends.