I was quite surprised that nobody brought this up yet, but to me it is fairly clear that this is what Taleb's antifragility MUST look like upon close inspection: a lot of "free energy" trapped in such a way that only destructive shocks can release it. Any system that actually benefits from destructive shocks must look mad, consisting of crazy parts. If all the trillion-dollar-bills lying around were accessible (and hence immediately picked up) "in peace time", there would be no reserve for dealing with unexpected shocks from unknown unknowns well outside of the civilization's current model of reality.
The Visitor's civilization is fragile: there is no way a random destructive shock can... (read more)
I was quite surprised that nobody brought this up yet, but to me it is fairly clear that this is what Taleb's antifragility MUST look like upon close inspection: a lot of "free energy" trapped in such a way that only destructive shocks can release it. Any system that actually benefits from destructive shocks must look mad, consisting of crazy parts. If all the trillion-dollar-bills lying around were accessible (and hence immediately picked up) "in peace time", there would be no reserve for dealing with unexpected shocks from unknown unknowns well outside of the civilization's current model of reality.
The Visitor's civilization is fragile: there is no way a random destructive shock can... (read more)