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Episode 6 - Power and Freedom
Disclaimer: Jeff's sound quality is lower this week. It won't be for future podcasts.
What is power? The ability to influence the decisions of others.
What is freedom? The ability to make a decision for yourself absent of influence from others. Also the condition of having a large number of available choices.
Two social forces that oppose each other.
Power vs Freedom: Why don't I list this as "Security vs Freedom" as the classical view?
Do we want *anyone* to have power? Would such a society really achieve maximum individual freedom?
Without giving anyone power we wouldn't be able to accomplish larger goals (cooperation)
We would also be in danger from opposing groups that were able to give up some power to cooperate as larger groups
Do we want *anyone* to have freedom?
Do leaders of groups that have a large amount of individual freedom benefit by having greater power? If so, is this a paradox? People with high degrees of freedom tend to have a larger number of choices and a greater ability to affect the world and therefore being the leader of such a group might make one a more powerful leader.
The strange word "autocracy"

Fact Check: At 15:42 of this podcast I incorrectly list the year of the publication of Einstein's "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (special relativity) as 1898. The actual year of its publication was 1905. Sue me.

Link to things mentioned in the podcast:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-un
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/autocracy