Unfair feedback loops

posted on 2020-12-23

one set of societal problems that i feel is often overlooked, especially by the political right, comes in a form i like to call unfair feedback loops. this is any situation where an originally fair interaction produces (often as a side-effect) conditions that augment its ability to happen again beyond fairness.

there are many examples:

politicians get elected by voters (fair), and then get the power to influence how elections work in order to facilitate their reelection (unfair)
criminals get punished by the justice system (fair) but also afterwards get poorer treatment in society, in a way that makes them more likely to commit crimes again (unfair)
good ideas can become widely adopted (fair) to the point that society pressures people into adopting them (unfair)
companies can make profit from selling good products (fair), and use that profit to spend money on marketing (such as advertising) to bend culture towards consumption of their products (unfair)

the common element between these situations is that further interactions could still happen to a "fair" amount, but they gain a bonus from having happened in the past, which makes their reoccurence more likely/numerous than is justifiable.

posted on 2020-12-23