On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 9:52 AM Matt Mahoney <[email protected]> wrote: ...
> Sortocracy will require some type of global authority to manage the > distribution of territory, > Here is where "minimum description length" becomes "minimum argument surface" -- very much the way it does in the Hutter Prize judging: The land value allocation can be virtually automated since it is done by replacing politics with people "voting with their feet". I'm sure you could devise an algorithm that would do the job if you thought about it. There are inescapable "hyperparameters" to be "tuned" such as the thresholds of imbalance in per capita land value as people flee some governments and flood other governments. This is the same imbalance that arose with the end of the Thirty Years War with the Treaty of Westphalia's institutionalized Sortocracy-without-land-reapportionment called "Cuius regio, eius religio <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuius_regio,_eius_religio>". And that imbalance is what gave the nation state a bad name. But since money, like votes, functions as a proxy for force, you have an alternative to war. Of course, money, unlike votes, can be far more objective through market mechanisms. Hence the reduction in "argument surface". Then there is the determination of whether an individual is being held against his/her will and whether their children were being kept behind by illegitimate claims of "adoption", etc. A Sortocracy State's sovereignty needn't be greatly intruded upon to make findings of fact that just about any reasonable person would agree with. Other practical matters regarding the dynamics of exile and relocation are also more easily handled than they were in history, since airlines—as Lindbergh warned in the 1930s—would make migration so easy as to become a political nightmare for the United States. There will always be a "Rogue State" now and then somewhere and the historical solution has been a formal TEMPORARY declaration of alliance by other States to suppress it. There are no utopias. > including the "state of nature" which I guess would consist of land that > nobody wants like Antarctica where unwanted people would be sent to die. > Maybe like the UN, but with real power and a strong military to enforce the > rules. > It's more likely that such harsh environments would obtain well before The State of Nature as the most egregious crimes against humanity would be committed by individuals who would be immediately challenged by a healthy young man protective of his family, and killed in a mutual hunt in nature (NOT "hand to hand combat", Matt -- entering from opposite ends of a wilderness area equipped with primitive tools: knife&cordage). Such individuals would much prefer accepting voluntary confinement or -- as Elon Musk has predicted -- a Tesla robot following them around to keep them in line in Musk's utopian vision, the north slope of Alaska, or other dangerous work. My question is how would you implement this global authority? Would you > organize it like a traditional democracy where each country sends > representatives with voting power in proportion to population, or would it > be AGI? Either would be more intelligent than a single human. > I expect something like Sortocracy would be largely automated nowadays for the "minimum argument surface" reasons above. Ultimately, I expect technological civilization would leave Earth for Bezos's "Maui on its best day," O'Neill colonies at which point a balance between the biosphere and Man may obtain under The State of Nature's prohabition against E. O. Wilson's "bugmen". > > -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] > > On Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 8:04 PM James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> On Thu, Jul 23, 2026 at 6:32 PM Matt Mahoney <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> >>> On Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:02 AM Quan Tesla <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> ... >>>> >>> James proposes using compression to settle disputes over questions of >>> social policy. Solomonoff induction tells us that the shortest program that >>> outputs past observations is the best predictor of future observations. >>> That is exactly what we are measuring with text compression. This seems to >>> me a better solution than the one he linked that proposes >>> >> >> >> Minimalist Rules for Sortocracy >> <https://sortocracy.org/minimalist-rules-for-sortocracy/> >> 1 Reply >> <https://sortocracy.org/minimalist-rules-for-sortocracy/#comments> >> >> Minimalist* Rules for Sortocracy: >> >> 1. Sortocracy recognizes all States* have legitimate power to control >> the presence of individuals on their respective territories. This >> includes >> exclusion or exile of anyone for any reason whatsoever. >> 2. Sortocracy requires that all States provide relocation for anyone, >> and their dependents, requesting emigration or being exiled. This does >> _not_ necessarily include relocation of capital assets claimed as >> “property” by those relocating. “Property rights” are defined by States >> themselves, not by Sortocracy. Their dependents include any children that >> have not been given up for adoption. >> 3. Sortocracy grants States territorial value in proportion to a >> census of their members. Sortocracy issues cash flow to States for >> territorial rent. This money is backed by territorial value. States >> then >> competitively bid to rent territory from Sortocracy. >> 4. New individuals qualify for admission to Sortocracy under one of >> 2 conditions: >> 1. Inheritance: For example, an ancestor of a child may will his >> membership to a descendant. >> 2. Territorial acquisition: A State admitting an individual as a >> new member of Sortocracy must add territory to Sortocracy equal in >> value a >> member’s territorial rent. >> 5. If no other State will accept a relocating member, at least one >> State of Nature must be set aside for such members in which human >> group selection >> <http://longnow.org/seminars/02012/apr/20/social-conquest-earth/> is >> suppressed by rules enforcing individual sovereignty, including death >> penalty and deadly natural duel as nature’s preferred dispute processing >> of >> last resort <http://sortocracy.org/the-state-of-nature/>. >> >> This eliminates prisons, war over territory and tyranny in all its forms >> including liberal democracy’s tyranny of the majority limited only by a >> vague laundry list of selectively enforced “human rights”. >> >> *Sortocracy achieves the aim of radical minarchism >> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minarchism> by recognizing the >> individual’s right to territory is prior to group authority in the form of >> government, including any more elaborate notions of “property”. This is >> founded on the recognition that access to territory is a necessary >> condition of life and that, prior to group force, such as government, such >> access is often granted through natural aggression between individuals. >> >> This entry was posted in Rules <https://sortocracy.org/category/rules/> >> on September 26, 2014 >> <https://sortocracy.org/minimalist-rules-for-sortocracy/>. >> >> Now, compare that to Matt's characterization: >> >> hand to hand combat between sovereign citizens with a 25 cm knife and 15 >>> meters of strong cordage. >>> >> >> Item 5 is last on the list for a good reason, Matt -- and it isn't to >> "hide a crazy idea in the fine print". >> > *Artificial General Intelligence List <https://agi.topicbox.com/latest>* > / AGI / see discussions <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi> + > participants <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/members> + > delivery options <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription> > Permalink > <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T5b58bcc51c493d41-M06aae57a1b27fc17da95ec65> > ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T5b58bcc51c493d41-Mc90403f0d98d88d977a5d0b3 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
