Cartels of Mediocrity

Reproducing a sociology simulation paper about social norms and the tendency towards low-quality exchanges and suboptimal outcomes. The Unaccountability Machine 1 by Dan Davies is broadly about how and why dysfunctional systems produce outcomes nobody seems to want. It also contains a tidy introduction to Cybernetics 2 and ideas like the viable system model 3 and requisite variety 4 . Reading that…