April 12, 2005
Conservation of Competence
Like many other conserved quantities I'd like to put forth that competence is finite. The amount of competence in the universe remains fixed while the available competence for each individual seeking to be adequate continues to dilute.
First, like all things competence is subject the great tyrant of the universe, the second law of thermodynamics. In short, competence is an organized state and tends to decay and break down into simpler forms over time. As it does much of the competence is lost to our frame of reference by bleeding off into space. This fact alone means that shortly before the heat death of the universe we'll have to undergo the ability death of the universe.
Second, because competence is finite and in fact tends to decrease in our frame of reference, as the population grows the level of competence available to each individual's use dwindles. Some Theorists have asserted that competence will be distributed equally through out the population and that while there is a net loss for each person the even distribution will make that loss manageable and hardly noticeable for several generations. Like all theorists, those that take that position are crazy. In fact competition for competence goes up. Those who really seek to be good at something are forced to study harder. Their efforts disturb the natural balance and the people around them lose out on their chance to escape mediocrity. As competence becomes harder to attain the energetic will horde more and more of it and the dilution of competence to the rest of society will become more and more acute. The final result will be one supremely competent individual surrounded by utter morons.
When I started writing this I thought that might be a problem. Given that I'm not likely to be the one ubermensch left on top at the end it's still a problem. However, if I can find a way to be that one last competent guy then taking over the world would be a cinch. Waiting for the rest of the world to devolve into incompetent lack-wits will now be known as plan "C."
Posted by DjDuk at April 12, 2005 11:44 AM
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