The Journal of Loose Ends

The Journal of Loose Ends

Research in the Post-Scientific Era

Vol.1,No.,2

Diagnosing the Incurable

In this edition of the Journal, we bring you the results of a study commissioned by the Authority and conducted by the Archive. Any and all conflicts of interest should be immediately apparent upon reading the sentence above. If you still have questions regarding conflicts of interest, please direct them to a remedial resource of your choosing. Do not message the editors of this Journal or the Archive itself.

The MCD syndrome was first described around five thousand years ago. As with most stereotypical group behaviors in the species’ historical records, the phenomenon has likely been around much longer than the first mention in preserved texts suggests.
MCD manifests later in the course of social development. It doesn’t get going without a certain degree of social and economic complexity to give it a push. In a few interesting outliers, the characteristic early findings of a society destined for MCD became apparent upon the adoption of agriculture. All of the documented early onset cases are species-specific. A common thread, likely causative, is the double-valued surplus.

On Unsalvageable remnant 792, the culprit was a variety of tuber ideal for domestication. In addition to its tremendous nutritional value, it produced a euphoric hallucinatory state. No sooner had a community settled down to cultivate this potato with benefits than it completely lost interest in farming. None of the harvest went into storage. Its surplus gone, the community’s remainder broke up into smaller groups. The bands of 3 to 5 individuals struck out in search of communities that hadn’t yet harvested their first crop. When the rovers encountered a permanent encampment with crops in the ground, they seized the harvest by various means.

Though outnumbered, hunger and enforced sobriety drove the bandit squads. Their raids succeeded better than an estimated two-thirds of the time. Soon, the only people with food or drugs were bandits, and that meant it was every man for himself. The psychedelic tubers ‘ value skyrocketed. No one considered it food anymore. The population collapsed and would never recover.
Despite its long history and relative notoriety in the records, MCD syndrome is not at all common. Most civilizations collapse in slow motion.
Here is the standard breakdown: Economic distortions and social inequities gradually increase. Every organization’s primary response to complexity is representational. Commerce progresses from direct exchange of goods to exchange of money in place of goods, to exchange of electronic debits and credits in exchange for money. The move from item to representation is efficient, but it lets in a bit of cynicism as it comes through the door.
Money’s value rests in consent, whether or not the consent is truly voluntary. A person who would never steal a stranger’s errant livestock doesn’t feel the same sting of ethical compunction from pocketing an unsecured sack of gold coins. States grow larger until their representational framework surpasses the average citizen’s understanding. A person contributing electronic debits to the Department of Predictive Glaciology is a brisk nudge away from revolutionary martyr, the department’s reports warning of an oncoming Ice Age notwithstanding. Citizens of the large states grow weary of taxation, but continue to show up at the various bureau offices looking for services in times of need, only to find their favorite programs hollowed out on their orders to the politicians. Everyone who can, picks up their ball and goes home. The provinces take over governance along with the debts and broken promises of their mother state.
Balkanization continues until the states become so small on average that they can no longer fund themselves. The healthier states consume the infirm. As a government’s proprietors hollow it out, there comes a time when it’s better for the supplicant at the helpdesk to ‘know a guy’ than it is for them to have a permit or electronic credits.
The international order transitions to oligarchy. Conflict arises between the oligarchs, and they fight until they can fight no more. With the stiff breeze of narrowly avoided catastrophe at their backs, the people rebuild their governments and resume hoarding money.
The victims of MCD started on the same path. However, when the unsustainable small states arose, the society abruptly disintegrated. The zero-sum game slipped into their midst and enforced its rules. The violence between states wasn’t any more intense in these circumstances. It was drastically less. Personal violence was the order of the day. As far as Scholars could tell, the people simply became so disillusioned with the state that they gave up on it wholesale in favor of every man for himself. There was no recovering from the loss of faith.

Post-scientific Analysis

Beliefs: Though our understanding of MCD remains rudimentary, we can confidently identify several of its roots. The zero-sum game encompasses the critical set of beliefs driving deterioration. It may be present even before agriculture. It seems likely that a belief in a limited, unrenewable quantity of resources determines the attitude that drives the move to settled farm life in the first place.

Other beliefs driving the MCD pathology:

It’s okay to be a bully as long as you’re not a sucker. Gullibility is a sin.

(This belief is crucial to maintaining the integrity of other beliefs in the system. It also provides crucial justification for the necessary atrocities involved in the deterioration.)

Nobody deserves a break.

Life is a contest

During the data acquisition phase of our study, limited as it was by the policies and procedures aimed at ensuring the survival of our canvassers, victims of two separate MCD incidents endorsed these beliefs without exception.
In the aftermath of MCD-related collapses, few worlds experience total local extinction. Instead, a sort of anti-Darwinian dialectic takes hold. The weak clutch their precious resources and hide. The strong do the same. However, among the stronger survivors, some fare well enough to stop being afraid of what will happen to them when the sun goes down again.

These people are tempted by precious resources hiding all around them. They are stronger than most, but still not strong. They can’t afford to target the weak, who are too poor. The payoff would not reimburse the effort. They have to go after the strong, who are rich. The casualty rate is high. Soon, only the weak remain, and there is peace. Then, a few of the weak start to do just a little better than the others, and so the cycle repeats.

. Our team conducted a number of interviews with survivors on the two worlds safe enough for on-site investigation. Because the narrative is so consistent, we will allow Subject 2.5 to speak for the group.

“Yeah. We didn’t feel like there was anything to lose. We only trusted what we could see, and from what we could see, the government wasn’t doing much for us anyway. For us to sit there any longer and let them have their way was just not right in the first place. We were sick of carrying all the lazy bums who took advantage of our generosity and the gullibility of our weak-willed politicians.

Sure, I felt a little funny ignoring all the screaming and pounding on the bunker door, but what was I going to do? They were just gonna take what I had. Just look at what happened when rations in the bunker ran low, and I had to turn the wife and kids out to fend for themselves. I may not always show it, but I feel bad about that as well. But you see, if I let things go on as they were then nobody would have survived. This way, at least we have a partial victory. With the less complicated tactical situation, I can forage enough to get by. Is this over? You’re going to need the coordinates to deliver my two pallets of ration packs and the ammunition.”

Methods: Obviously, there is little to report. We observed, and we asked questions according to the tenets of post-scientific investigation. In all likelihood, a post-scientific investigation is the only investigation suited to this topic, given the risks and the reliability of available sources.

Discussion: Our conclusions track the Authority’s current policy regarding MCD worlds. We are no closer today than we were five hundred years ago to prevention or cure for this singular, devastating malady. For the remnant populations on affected worlds, some hope remains. They have proven their ability to survive the collapse and should expect to face less risk in the future. Meanwhile, they must stay in quarantine. What else should we do?