[dryarzeg]

> technocracy

What you mentioned is not a technocracy. Technocracy is when all decisions are made by real specialists in the field, based on scientific methods (simply speaking). What you mentioned is a plutocracy, a form of oligarchy in which decisions are made by people of great wealth.

I couldn’t just ignore this because, in my view, technocracy (as I’ve described it) still has some merit - for instance, appointing only genuine economists to head a hypothetical Ministry of Economy makes some sense - whereas oligarchy and plutocracy have nothing good to offer. Of course, this is just my personal opinion.

[SpicyLemonZest]

I think most AI execs I'm familiar with would, if they were the god-monarch of humanity, recruit real specialists applying scientific methods to make most decisions. They seem like the kind of people who would understand that the Ministry of Economy is doing valuable things which shouldn't be compromised for personal expediency. Does that really make it any better?

[dryarzeg]

> if they were the god-monarch of humanity

In that case, we're not talking about an oligarchy or a technocracy either. What you have described is an autocracy - a rule by one. When there's some kind of "god-monarch", the people heading the Ministry of Economy will be controlled by this "god-monarch" and it's unclear if this can be called technocracy or not (at least it is unclear to me; maybe I'm stupid, who knows).

> Does that really make it any better?

Honestly? If you're asking about "would it be any better than now" - I'm not really sure, because I'm not in power to access the actions of the people who hold the positions equivalent to the head of Ministry of Economy - the economy is not my field, I'm not a specialist here. I would only point to the example I'm familiar with (and you're probably not; I'm sorry, I just couldn't think about something like this that I can verify) - in Ukraine, there's a "Ministry of Digital Transformation". This ministry was headed by a Mykhailo Fedorov, whose primary and as far as I know, he studied at the "Faculty of Sociology and Management". Well, that’s not the main point, as he’s studied elsewhere too. The problem lies elsewhere. His decisions have been criticized on more than one occasion by genuine experts - for example, the project known as "Diya", or "the state in a smartphone"; in short, it’s something like access to documents and various government services all in one app. It’s a long story… In short, as a result, there were (presumably) data leaks, and the service crashed more than once or twice due to its flawed security, and all sorts of problems were found with it - you name it, it had it. It's such a shame, to be honest... You can't just go and play with things like that. And now that person is serving as a... head of Ministry of Defence. Hell. To add insult to the injury, guess who is now taking his place at a Ministry of Digital Transformation? Oleksandr Bornyakov, who, as far as I know, holds a degree in marketing. Marketing. ...Nice. Well maybe I don't know something, who knows, who knows... but the decisions, or, rather, their consequences seem to be... let's settle with "terrible".

I'm pretty sure you can recall some similar examples yourself. My point is that although the scenario you described is not as good - because, I guess, no one really wants "god-monarch" controlling (although not making directly) all of the decisions. But if our hypothetical Ministry of the Economy were run by genuine experts who, moreover, work for the good of society - or at least the state as a whole - rather than just lining their own pockets, well, that sounds better than an idiocracy. That was my point.

[Nasrudith]

Technocracy is a myth thanks to Goodhart's Law. Whomever sets the measures just becomes the new dictator as they will continue insist on whatever doctrinal point until they retain power. Technocracy would just end being the same old 'push delusions to remain in power' government as fascism and theocracy.

[dryarzeg]

> Technocracy is a myth

"Complete" technocracy - yes, although in real life I can’t recall any states that have actually implemented it. But I didn’t say that technocracy is the solution to all our problems. I merely said the following, and I quote: "still has some merit". In other words, there is at least something good about it; there's some elements that could be adopted. Or, in your view, would it be better if the state were run by idiots who don’t even understand what, in theory, is their job?