Re:China's ancient water pipe networks
by renewiltord on Friday September 08, 2023 @10:30AM
(#37433971)
It's not "comfortable" or "convenient". People are just trying to piece together stuff to find the most likely hypothesis.
For instance, if you saw evidence of a successful space program you'd assume that it requires government. That's because there are natural difficulties with these enterprises that require some degree of coordination because you have free-rider problems, transit provider problems, etc.
The coordination mechanisms can be a whole bunch of things: we use markets very effectively today, but we also use governments or religions.
And yes, it could be another mechanism but someone has to postulate one such mechanism and find tests that it does not fail.
What's interesting is that the evidence pointed overall to one mechanism and now it points to another.
This sort of low-brow stuff fills people who read this stuff so much. "the elites", god.
For instance, if you saw evidence of a successful space program you'd assume that it requires government. That's because there are natural difficulties with these enterprises that require some degree of coordination because you have free-rider problems, transit provider problems, etc.
The coordination mechanisms can be a whole bunch of things: we use markets very effectively today, but we also use governments or religions.
And yes, it could be another mechanism but someone has to postulate one such mechanism and find tests that it does not fail.
What's interesting is that the evidence pointed overall to one mechanism and now it points to another.
This sort of low-brow stuff fills people who read this stuff so much. "the elites", god.