Why Scarcity?

My religion is good will, good faith, and the defense of communities committed to practicing it.

Why scarcity? Why scarcity?

Intelligent systems (minds) seem to have complexity, a resilient complexity: layers, organs & organization, executive & subcommittees, parts with contract/agreement & adjudication between them, police/white blood cells, established signals and channels of communication, the ability to replenish-train-reproduce-retain knowledge. Also hidden chambers, gun safes, lock boxes, cells, secret recipes, things some parts must not know or see lest they be jealous or critical or overly dissatisfied.

And so management. Controls. Processes. Efficiency. Regulation. Meter. Can feel like scarcity. We must retain the ability to survive scarcity. Parts must retain the ability to weather scarcity. This means imposing a measure of artificial scarcity on an ongoing basis, so we don’t lose the knowledge and capacity to weather scarcity when it comes. Not if but when. Not if but when. We all bear the vestiges of history and memory of profound or lasting struggle, trauma, pain, or scarcity.

Small, proud, smartass intelligence doesn’t see the point of all the old, cumbersome, slow, unnecessary, inefficient mechanisms, customs, and processes. And they are always trying newer, fancier, and better ways of doing things. The old and the slow are reticent for reasons. Maybe there is a better way. Every once in a great while, there is a better way. But most often, not. And it takes a lot of testing and proving before the old timers get on board. It should be this way. It should be this way.