We think we have free will because we are naive humans. Capitalism is not naive though. To win against this evil-duo we need to look 3,000 years into the past – and on to the near future.
Our brain and free will. What Nature leaves out of its resume
Slow, heavily relying on genetics and practically controlled by chemicals and microbes.
We like to think we have a powerful “under control” thinking machine but we actually have a rather predictable and limited brain to work with.
First – it is rather slow. While neurons “fire” at a rate of thousands per second, the CPU in the phone you are holding runs billions (a million times faster). Not only slow, it is incapable of parallel thinking. One trail of thought at a time, calculated slowly and if switched – slow to pick where it left off.
Then – you think success at work or relationships are things you have control over? Think again. Your genetically-tuned Dopamine levels impact what you want, how driven you are to achieve it and how likely you are to retain it. Anxious? Depressed? Or think everything is going to be just fine? Feel your feelings, hopes and emotions are “yours”? Sorry. The mentioned Dopamine mixed with Serotonin, Norepinephrine, Oxytocin, Endorphins and sprinkles of Gamma-aminobutyric acid are at the wheel. Hope you are comfortable in the trunk.
Last – let me mention the microbiome. Holding you by the Vagus Nerve. Bacteria and viruses playing you like a puppet on a string (literally). Still early days of research – but I have a feeling later days will show we are at the heart of a conspiracy of viruses, bacteria and chemicals – all cleverly depriving us of free will as we thought we had it.
| הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים אָמַר קֹהֶלֶת הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים הַכֹּל הָבֶל מַה יִּתְרוֹן לָאָדָם בְּכָל עֲמָלוֹ שֶׁיַּעֲמֹל תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ |
| Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? |
I am not encouraging you to drop everything and sit on top of a mountain as all is meaningless, out of control and dictated by germs (not saying it is not either…). I gamed the facts a tiny bit. After all – you can walk, talk and breathe at the same time, right? Nice multi-tasking! The brain is also somewhat more efficient than your phone, aware of itself, motivated, creative and we have not gone into the quantum entanglement hypothesis hinting at how far we are from understanding what is actually going on (or building an AGI for that matter). Evolution also tweaked our brain to run some programs with hardware acceleration. We best know them as Cognitive Biases as they have a flip side – which is what interests us here.
Bottom line – we think we have more control than we actually have. Anthropocentrism (as discussed in previous posts) is very human. And arrogant. And wrong. We are being controlled by a bunch of chemicals, genetically-rolled dice, microbiomes and brain-firmware. Meaning – much of what we do is outside of our control (or awareness). And it can be manipulated without us either knowing or being able to resist.
𝑓(Capitalism) creates a lot of unintended noise
The function of Capitalism is to drive human progress with optimization on resources and time. The outcome is remarkable. The recursive creation of abundance, enabling specialization, creating more abundance brought us to a point where almost no one knows how to make even the simplest “tool” such as a pencil and if we try to prepare something “end-to-end” it costs orders of magnitude more compared to purchasing it post-capitalism.
Pencils and chicken sandwiches aside – fewer people than ever before in history are hungry, more are safe, healthy, live longer and have more free time.
On the flip-side – capitalism is based on “let them run”. And at the meso-level (company/industry) what businesses optimize for is revenues and profits. They will manipulate and utilize any raw-material they can put their hands on in the process. That includes our chemical-genetic-hard-wired-decision-making tool.
Which brings us to 𝑓(Capitalism)noise.
Capitalism will take as much as it can from us to grow its profits (again – at the meso-level – not at the macro-level which all-in-all is probably beneficial). What it takes is –
- Control
- Time
- Money
Manipulates your brain “to decide” according to what is beneficial to the business, takes control of your time and with both – takes your money. Food, entertainment, fashion, purchasing and financial decisions. Taken out of our “control” in the most subtle ways – to feed “the machine”.
Here too – I am being overly simplistic and “dark”. Let us count our blessings again – you have more food and water with very little effort and risk, you are warm, more healthy, safer and have more free time than any of your ancestors.
But assume you wanted to get back some control and reduce what is tricked out of your possession. Is there a way to overcome the limitations of your brain and the manipulations of capitalism?
Yes, there is.
And it has been proven to work for over 3,000 years.
What would Penelope say?
After the Helen affair, war, the Trojan Horse, Achilles’ death and while Penelope was in the process of rejecting 108 suitors, Ulysses was busy fighting his decisions. He knew his actions (i.e. his brain) were not at his control – so he ordered his sailors to tie him to the mast in order to not be tempted by the singing of the Sirens (them capitalists!). Actually – he knew there was nothing he could do to stop himself from being tempted – what he wanted was not to be able to take action – once the nothing-you-can-do-to-resist urge kicks in.
This is called a Ulysses Contract.
Acknowledging there is nothing you can do to resist what is dictated by internal and external forces – and finding a way to tie yourself to act despite what is forced upon you.
A few examples follow. Word of caution – they are extreme. In practice you need something “softer” to start with. They are intended for thought provoking.
- Want to eat less snacks? Make sure you have none around you. Zero at home, zilch at work. There is no way you will be able to resist the temptation when tired/hungry/stressed. The decision will be taken for you by your out-of-control brain boosted by packaging, product optimization and ads. Zero chance to deploy “free-will”. Only if you are “tied to the mast” of not having any around – you will be saved.
- Want to consume less ordered food? Remove your credit card and delete the order-out applications from your phone. When you come home late, tired and hungry – everything is working in concert against your best health. You have little to no control.
- Want to spend less time on social media? That’s a tough one. Cancel push notifications. Not enough? Remove them from the phone (but allow visits from your computer). Move all communications out of social apps (i.e. Instagram messaging) to pure-messaging apps (Messenger. Bundling them was a clever evil-move by Meta) and in severe cases (see how severe by how much time you spend in the screen time app) – delete accounts. “Your life is more valuable” and other fortune-cookie truths. No one said being tied will not be painful…
- Want to spend less time watching TV? Sell it. Cancel Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. The “I deserve a little off-time and me-time to unwind” is not you talking in your head. It is chemistry, firmware and advertisements working together.
- Want to feel less stressed about the future? Cancel push notifications and delete news applications from your phone. Do not watch the news on TV. News has zero actionable value. If something is important enough for you to act on (being invaded by Canada for example) – someone will call.
- Want to do more meaningful work? Wait for it… delete your email app. Yes yes. Install it once a week on a specific day. Sounds extreme? It is. Will you do it? No. Do you make an impact by answering your emails from your phone compared to thinking and solving challenges? Mmmm… no. If you only give service to others and do not create anything – that does not apply to you. But in that case I would consider what AI will do to my job in the next 10 years. Bonus – if you are using Slack or a similar tool at work – consider yourself working at 50%.
- Want to save money? “Pay yourself first” and cancel the ability to take debt. If you struggle with saving or have a debt running out of control (growing and not shrinking) – force yourself to save every month – before making any expenses. Make the money come out automatically from your account to your wealth-building program. Cancel credit cards and prevent yourself from taking any (and especially) consumer debt. Remember that the logic arguing against this is not originating from “you” but from external forces you have little chance to overcome.
- Want to build wealth? Make continuous blind investments (to assets with a positive mean even if volatile) and disable your ability to reverse or sell (portfolios that made the highest returns where the ones their owners forgot their password). Do not let others manage, do not listen to others, do not follow others, do not tell others. Everything is set against you but the ropes and the mast.
- Want to not be driven by what others think? Relocate. There is little chance you will be able to resist the will to “blend” (and not stand out) in ways guaranteed to drain resources (time, money, attention). Most wealthy people do not live in posh neighborhoods.
The idea is to add friction. A lot of friction. To make “not worth it” the action which we do not want but cannot resist.
By the way – children (until their early 20s!) are even more vulnerable to the “singing of the Sirens”. Their chemistry is unstable, firmware running on genetic defaults and receptiveness to influence is at maximum level. A good guardian will practice “sailorism” often.
The European Commission comes with ropes
Proud as I am for inventing the term “sailorism”, there is already a much boring word for it. Regulation.
The governments enabling capitalism for its benefits are also aware (with decades of delay) of its side effects. They use regulation in order to protect us from the combination of our inner demons collaborating with optimization for profits.
We see it everywhere around us – in food, drugs, water, safety, smoking, insurance, pension, stress. Governments “tie us to the mast” for our own good and make it very hard for either us or the capitalists to release the ropes.
I have an unverified thesis that countries with more human-focused regulation also have happier populations (controlling for other factors). Who knows.
Subjective AI – your private sailors
I discussed in a previous post the difference between Objective AI and Subjective AI. The former gives value in relation to “open” data – the internet, literature etc. The latter gives value in relation to your personal data – what you do, where you are, what you see, your health, how much you make etc. It might pull “knowledge” from the outside – but the “advice” it gives is associated with you – Subjective.
An example of Subjective AI (and the first but definitely not last) is Apple Intelligence which was recently unveiled.
See where this is going?
A good Subjective AI will be able to be our sailors.
“Siri, stop me from binging”.
“Siri, help me reduce weight”.
“Siri, stop me from wasting time on social media”.
“Siri, help me concentrate better on writing a blog”.
“Siri, help me stop smoking”.
“Sire, help me build my wealth”.
“Siri, help me spend more time with my wife” (and no “Siri, spend time with my wife for me” is not the same and requires a deep introspection).
Siri (and Google and Microsoft and good luck to OpenAI) will know “where you sail” (what you do), your limitations (being a human) and the environment trying to sing in your ears and manipulate you. It will be able to take action, block and prevent. It will help you achieve what you want. It will act as your private regulator.
Interesting point is that since we are all different – so are our goals and preferences. A personalized regulator is actually very “capitalistic” and allows greater levels of freedom on both sides of the equation. Here also lays the business opportunity of Subjective AI, but let us not sail too far from our subject.
Stay human, listen to the singing, but return safely to Penelope.