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A comment on Freedom of speech is in retreat. Parent comment

Re:Freedom of speech is in retreat by jimmyk on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @11:05AM (#11854965)
>any government is isomorphic to a perfect "Libertopia" where a single corporation owns everything.

Do you not think the common belief that governments are of, for, and by the people, compared to the common belief that businesses are self-interested, results in differences in what those organizations can actually end up doing?

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Re:Freedom of speech is in retreat by mindslight on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @11:20AM (#11855073)
A corporation is of, for, and by the shareholders. A country can be thought of as a similar entity where every citizen gets a share.

I'm not saying the two are equivalent - distinguishing between the two could obviously be useful in a different discussion. I'm following this reduction to illustrate a contradiction.

System behavior cannot be met by creating the correct "axiomatic primitives" and then blindly building on them. We are computer scientists, and so we know that complexity eventually creates emergent behavior that likely contradicts our original goals. System behavior must be analyzed for its qualitative effects in the "big picture", to see if our goals are being met.

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Re:Freedom of speech is in retreat by sevenless on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @11:33AM (#11855167)
System behavior cannot be met by creating the correct "axiomatic primitives" and then blindly building on them. We are computer scientists, and so we know that complexity eventually creates emergent behavior that likely contradicts our original goals. System behavior must be analyzed for its qualitative effects in the "big picture", to see if our goals are being met.

That is the most succinct explanation I've heard yet for why virtually all of economics is wrong.

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Re:Freedom of speech is in retreat by Daishiman on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @12:54PM (#11855788)
The primary motivations of corporations and governments are vastly different, and the exponentially larger expanse of governments gives it different properties in its operations.

They are both institutions, and as such share all the issues common to large bodies of humans trying to operate in unison, but the reductionism in the analogy is too big for it to be meaningful.

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