Spire's Fundamental Law of Internet Dynamics

Badness scales better than goodness.

(Yes, I am just figuring this out.)

Comments

[Chandler Howell]

And you accuse me of just learning what a cold, cruel world it is!

[kurt wismer]

i can't shake this feeling that there's a connection to (or at least an analog to) thermodynamics in there somehow...

[Pete]

@Kurt - at the very least, it inspired me to change my title. ;-)

[kurt wismer]

well, i thought about it some more and here's what i think the connection i'm seeing is...

'goodness' seems predicated on some degree of cooperation of many people to maintain (ie. not disrupt) existing systems and/or to build new ones... in so far as cooperation implies some level of coordination, 'goodness' could then be considered an expression of 'order'...

by contrast, 'badness' has no need for cooperation or coordination, and as those things require effort/energy, 'badness' therefore requires less effort/energy than does 'goodness' and so is the more spontaneous of the two...