&gt; <i>That seems to be pretty clear evidence that things get better</i><p>There have been many collapses throughout history and attitudes of invincibility usually precede them. There&#x27;s also the evidence of us being born in this period of history, implying it is likely the <i>most</i> populous. I&#x27;m not asserting that collapse is <i>going</i> to happen, simply arguing against confidence in either outcome. Past performance does not guarantee future returns.<p>&gt; <i>The longer it takes for that [challenging the social machine] to happen, the more entrenched and harder to change it will get.</i><p>So yeah, let&#x27;s get those non-molesting pedophiles to stand up next week and publicly proclaim their desires. I&#x27;m <i>suuuure</i> there will be some enlightened discourse, after which they will be accepted. (BTW, if you don&#x27;t want the social machine to become entrenched and harder to change, doesn&#x27;t giving it <i>omniscience</i> seem like a poor idea?)<p>&gt; <i>Outliers like people who don&#x27;t pay fines they were legitimately assessed</i><p>Outliers like people who drive too much. Or go to too many fast food restaurants. Or hit the liquor store in the middle of the week. Or who don&#x27;t go to church. Or who do go to chuch. Or who play hooky from work. And yes, outliers who are going to work so they can afford to pay a ticket. Every specific situation has a direct &quot;fix&quot;, but the <i>entire point</i> is that these things should not have to be lobbied for for decades to change <i>everyone&#x27;s</i> perceptions (or people can simply never agree). Our society is kept moving by white lies that reconcile the difference between reality and the prescriptive model dictated by social norms&#x2F;government. Your viewpoint assumes that perfect enforcement will cause the prescriptive model to have to adjust to match reality, but would-be social engineers have <i>never</i> worked that way - the entire reason the present model is far off from reality is because they believing that imposing top-down visions is desirable.<p>&gt; <i>[Government is] an abstract concept with no will of its own</i><p>The organisms we call governments <i>do</i>, like all organisms, whether conscious or unconscious.<p>Getting back to the crux of the matter, we are never going to see eye to eye. The &quot;example&quot; I keep stating and you keep brushing aside is simply that _I_ would like privacy where possible - for at least self-contained situations. I simply do not wish to trust everyone else to completely empathize with me (having similar computational power, how could they possibly simulate me?), but really I need no further justification for my desire. If you cannot respect my (and others&#x27; like me) desire, then you are yet another social engineer with a <i>grand plan for everyone</i> - exactly the type of person I desire privacy from!