If stealing got easier, to compensate we might need to increase punishment, decrease punishment delay, increase surveillance (decrease privacy), increase spending in security, decrease long term planning, decrease owning some types of assets (and vice versa), decrease exchanges / agreements / contracts.
More labour wasted on guards (and surveilling the guards), sturdier barriers, traps, defensive training and tools, etc.
Low-trust societies where interactions with strangers are risky mean clannishness / arms-length exchanges decrease, partially compensated by more transactions with trusted parties (family and allies).
AI Use Note: Main body text entirely human written. Claude (Opus 4.8) helped develop models of animal life histories in the appendix.
Cross-posted from Good Structures.
Executive Summary
* Animal advocates sometimes make claims like “there are X of this animal...
“How long have you been v*g*n?”
This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. It’s a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if you’re out advocating for animals not to be tortured or abused, realistically these days you are v**n, or close. And it makes for good conversation. It seems fairly safe to assume when you meet strangers.
But this assumption is hurting the movement in a way which we don’t always notice: someone new comes into the sp...
Summary
Back in November 2023 I posted here to launch Spiro and raise our first $198k. Two and a half years later this is an update and a fundraiser for the next step.
The short version: we've now reached over-5,900 people with TB preventive medicine, including over 3,000 children under five years old. Our early results have held up well an...
Just some thoughts.
If stealing got easier, to compensate we might need to increase punishment, decrease punishment delay, increase surveillance (decrease privacy), increase spending in security, decrease long term planning, decrease owning some types of assets (and vice versa), decrease exchanges / agreements / contracts.
Also, day-to-day behavior would change.
More labour wasted on guards (and surveilling the guards), sturdier barriers, traps, defensive training and tools, etc.
Low-trust societies where interactions with strangers are risky mean clannishness / arms-length exchanges decrease, partially compensated by more transactions with trusted parties (family and allies).