Episode notes
1. Authority-Seeking as an Evolutionary Mismatch
- Human dominance drives evolved for small-band coordination.
- In large-scale societies, these traits scale into systemic harm.
- This is an evolutionary mismatch: locally adaptive, globally destructive.
- Technical terms: dominance hierarchy pathology, institutional maladaptation, runaway prestige-dominance fusion.
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2. Government as a High-Risk Coordination Mechanism
- Centralized authority amplifies harm: war, oppression, coercion, institutional violence.
- Historical data shows organized violence vastly exceeds natural disasters or spontaneous conflict.
- Political science terms: state capacity risk, authoritarian failure modes, institutional violence theory.
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3. The Pathology of Power-Seeking
- Desire to ru ...