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perching_aix • today at 3:07 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

> human-like social pathologies - such as bureaucratic inertia

Isn't bureaucracy just the sociological manifestation of synchronization overhead? Sounds shortsighted to file it away as just some weird social pathology that emerges out of nowhere specifically affecting humans.


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TheOtherHobbes • today at 5:27 PM

No, bureaucracy also includes elements of social dominance by people who have no other means to assert status (or sometimes outright covert sadism), busywork, and processes that are rule-based - often dumbed down in the hope that people with limited intelligence don't make avoidable mistakes - rather than responsive and reality-based.

Getting agents to deal with their own versions of these issues is an interesting experiment.

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