Optimality and efficiency work counter to robustness and resilience. Complexity hides interdependence, and interdependence is the source of black swan

A Rubicon | Hoover Institution

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2022-01-13 16:30:06

Optimality and efficiency work counter to robustness and resilience. Complexity hides interdependence, and interdependence is the source of black swan events. The benefits of digitalization are not transitive, but the risks are. Because single points of failure require militarization wherever they underlie gross societal dependencies, frank minimization of the number of such single points of failure is a national security obligation. Because cascade failure ignited by random faults is quenched by redundancy, whereas cascade failure ignited by sentient opponents is exacerbated by redundancy, (preservation of) uncorrelated operational mechanisms is likewise a national security obligation.

Examining the impact of party identification on US elections, this essay uses data from surveys of voters to compare self-identified Democrats and Republicans with the median voter on a range of issues.

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