Power and Knowledge

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It is far easier to concentrate power than to concentrate knowledge. That is why so much social engineering backfires and why so many despots have led their countries into disasters.

Thomas Sowell
January 5, 2010
Intellectuals and Society

Via Thomas Sowell Quotes @ThomasSowell.

I can’t say enough good things about the writings of Thomas Sowell.

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3 thoughts on “Power and Knowledge”

  1. That’s true, though it’s only a small part of the answer. I think the better answer is found in the writing of Hazlett and von Mises: economic systems have far too many variables for a small number of people to understand, let alone control. So even if you assumed extremely smart people running the show (the “government of experts”) it still won’t work because the task is intractable.
    This also explains why the Fed makes such a mess of things.

    • Via Frederick Hayek, it is not just the number of people. It is proximity to the “problem.” The farmer knows his land far better than any bureaucrat a 1000 miles away. And even enough better than his neighbor who farms across the road, that he can coax more productivity out of it.

      And so it is with every job. It takes time to acquire the specialized knowledge of that business or job. And it can be essential impossible to communicate that knowledge to others. They need to experience and learn it for themselves.

  2. Oh, don’t worry, the Great and Powerful AI is literally concentrated knowledge; it will know all and solve all the worlds problems. We just need to turn everything over to it’s control and submit to it’s wisdom. What could possibly go wrong?

    I suspect this is the plan “they” are working on. I’m not concerned about AI, I’m concerned about the man behind the curtain.

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