Pewpipoopoo t1_j54xguh wrote
Reply to comment by joescott2176 in What if? by [deleted]
Well, people usually make the argument that corporations will become the governments of the future as a way of saying that we'll become more awful because people are awful and profit is awful, and we're just going to get more awful, lol.
But governments are just corporations that have a monopoly on violence, and so they're able to collect revenue without producing anything. So I don't know that corporations who chase profits are all that much worse than the corporations that don't.
But one thing that all cooperatives within social species share is a common goal, government, corporation, or otherwise. And what we've seen with humans, and what would be seen in any successful species, are more and more efficient ways of accomplishing their shared goals.
The most pragmatic ways to solve problems are always going to win out. And what we know is that cooperation is always the most pragmatic solution. Simply put, many hands make light work.
The actual reason we've seen so much violence and exploitation throughout history isn't because we're just naturally bastards, it's because we hadn't yet developed the technologies or knowledge needed to build an infrastructure that could utilize cooperation in a more efficient way than we could with violence and exploitation.
Violence and exploitation were simply a more effective way of accomplishing our goals. But as knowledge and technology advance, we become less violent and less exploitative. This isn't because we're becoming kinder and gentler, but because cooperation is becoming more effective as technology and knowledge increase.
It only stands to reason that any species that are capable of interstellar travel will have achieved it by having better utilized cooperation, and will therefore be far more likely to seek out cooperation with other species they come in contact with than violence. Because even more hands mean even lighter work.
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