Will human societies always enshittify themselves?
Will human societies always enshittify themselves?
It seems society always goes down the shitter over and over following the same path. People rise to wealth and power extracted on the repression of the masses, massive disparity, ignorance exemplified, xenophobia and blaming minorities for any possible issue, laws signed with golden pens but becoming more meaningless when they’re only enforced to protect the wealthy…. Then some sort of collapse, fragmentation, and/or dystopia usually in conjunction with war, purges, and killing in the name of tribalism.
History seems to rewind the cassette and record right over the top with the same old song.
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The problem you're describing has been described countless times before. Plato talks about it at length. It's literally the basis for 1984.
So, the answer is yes.
The good news is, it's part of a cycle of revolution and enshitification. Things get bad, the masses decide they've had enough, and strike back, things get better for a while, until they follow the same path they did the first time, and the cycle repeats.
But.
Every time it happens, things get a little worse. The relentless march of time and enshitification will gradually consume the planet, until human civilization collapses entirely. Maybe in our lifetime, maybe in 200 years, maybe in a 1000. But some day, all we've built will come crashing down around us, because while each individual may have foresight, society does not.
Every time it happens, things get a little worse.
I'd argue that each time, things get a little better.
Sure the worst part is always the worst we've ever seen, but we take what we learned from that and create new systems. Plan A starts well enough, until money and power corrupt it, it gets bad enough to revolt and now we try plan B. Plan B will eventually corrupt, but, it's better than plan A ever was. We're getting closer, but it's a trial and error process that happens over centuries, so it's going to take longer than we'll ever know.
It gets worse? So you’d rather live in Victorian England? Is that what you’re saying?
I've heard that it's easier to grow in power or money when you don't consider ethical questions while rising above others (as long as you either follow laws or don't get caught while not following them).
And since humans seem to be an animal that corrupts easily (especially when given enough power/money)...
Makes me wonder - when do I corrupt? How? And if/when I will, will I even notice it myself?