202504051626 Status: #idea Tags: #society #institutions #government # Social technologies are the operating system for a civilization Social technology is distinct from material technology in that it is technology which is used to govern social interactions. For example, the American Constitution is a monument of social technology which allowed the US government to organize itself in such a way to ensure stability of the government while maintain freedom for the people. It is important to think of this as "technology" because, in general, these accepted social norms or social contracts are not ideas that are plucked from the air. Instead, they are generally complex concepts that are developed by one or more exceptional individuals. Think Louis XIV book on etiquette. Social technology allows us to organize humans better and reduce the cognitive load of social interactions. As such, they represent civilization's operating system - they determine the milieu that the citizens of a civilization operate within and set the boundaries of what is possible or conceivable. They also can facilitate certain types of interactions, such as the legal code in Delaware facilitating company formation, or disincentivize other forms of interaction, such as a murder. ## Related Ideas - [[Social technology as a hypernode graph problem]] - [[Great institutions require planning and insight from the beginning]] - [[Maintaining functional institutions requires skill succession and power succession]] - [[A new value structure needs to be created to replace religion]] - [[Intellectual dark matter holds our society together]] - [[Creative destruction is required because we haven't solved the succession problem]] --- # References [[Great Founder Theory]]