Predators and Prey

Even though wanting Steem to do well is relatively unanimous, everyone has differing opinions as to what is best way to get there. There are new ideas being developed every day to try and tackle various aspects but, people are people and most are designed to favour a few, not all. This is the way the world works, maximization of the self.

There is this underlying position of if the code allows it but I wonder how many take that position in their private lives. Are those living oppressed happy under tyrants and laws they are unable to affect? Do people just accept their station in life? Perhaps they do.

What of bad actors, those who break the law? If someone robs your house, do you call the police, when violent crimes are committed, do you seek justice or just accept, it is part of the natural code of the universe, people are people and some people are violent so, it is what it is.

Maybe thos is just the nature of the animal, some are predators, most are prey. Maybe in a place like Steem we can see the coding of the world at play, the strong eat the weak, natural crimes of opportunity because, where is the risk?

If someone steals half a million Steem, does anyone report them to the police? If they truly are a bad actor, what repercussion do they face in reality? Where is the personal cost in a digital environment, what is the disincentive to act poorly since the code allows it? Demonetization?

How long are you willing and how much time, effort, energy and personal cost will you sink into demonetizing someone in Steem? As the economy grows and onboarding happens, more and more will see opportunity in being a bad actor and less will likely want or have the capabilities to police the system as a community. Even now in these early stages, the struggle to cope is apparent.

We all hope that at least the majority will act well but, the incentive to act in self interest over community growth and development is higher. Nature encourages survival and when there are large predators, one doesn't want to be noticed, flock mentality is the safety net. Go where they go, do what they do.

Rather than banding together to face the risk, it is hide in the middle to lower the chances of being picked off. A life of subsistence driven by fear and this is a self-maximising position too. The code allows life at this level in the same way it allows the predators to roam free until a larger or more skilled predator chooses to intervene and disrupt the pecking order.

I have my views but no one really can define what a bad actor on Steem is because we suffer from the legacy of enslavement. We need an authority to tell us what is right or wrong, even if we know it in our heart. How many here act with a fear of being found out? How many skeletons are people burying? How many know or feel they could do better, but don't? How many expect others to change?

When it comes down to it, code rules all of our behaviours and that code is the personal responsibility for our actions and lives. Many Steem take the catch me if you can attitude at the expense of others, some take a view that personal responsibility requires social consideration of others too. It is a strange world at Steem because of misaligned incentives, the cost to do what is right for the community is higher than the price paid for getting caught doing what is wrong. Whatever wrong may be.

Can you define it?

A few Saturday night thoughts sent from the bedside of my sleeping daughter. When I sit here, I think of where I am and where she could one day be.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
_{(posted from phone)}