A theory of information, by Noah Smith

 [[{“value”:”So here you go: a theory of how totalitarianism might naturally triumph. The basic idea is that when information is costly, liberal democracy wins because it gathers more and better information than closed societies, but when information is cheap, negative-sum information tournaments sap an increasingly large portion of a liberal society’s resources. Remember that I don’t believe this theory;
The post A theory of information, by Noah Smith appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.”}]] 

So here you go: a theory of how totalitarianism might naturally triumph. The basic idea is that when information is costly, liberal democracy wins because it gathers more and better information than closed societies, but when information is cheap, negative-sum information tournaments sap an increasingly large portion of a liberal society’s resources. Remember that I don’t believe this theory; I’m merely trying to formulate it.

Here is the full blog post, gated after some point.

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 Political Science, Uncategorized