Generalized media let one person’s selections drive another’s actions without trust in the person.

Evidence

The consolidation of trust therefore constitutes an advantageous, but also a heavily presuppositional reformulation for the primordial problem of social order, the existence of a free alter ego. Instead of arming oneself against the unpredictability of the other person in the full complexity of all possibilities, one can seek to reduce complexity by concentrating on the creation and maintenance of mutual trust, and engage in more meaningful action in respect of a problem now more narrowly defined. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 247 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Trust and power are generalized media converting improbable contingencies into stable meaning systems; Indeterminacy and unexercised possibility underpin the generalization of influence; Trust arises not from powerlessness but from lack of full information about others. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 84 (+1 more)

Related

• Trust and power are generalized media converting improbable contingencies into stable meaning systems (similarity 0.86)
• Communication media form only where selection has become contingent and improbable (similarity 0.85)
• Society results from improbable contingent events, not natural human action (similarity 0.82)
• Trust shifts from persons to the media of money, truth, and power themselves (similarity 0.82)
• Trust reduces the complexity of a free alter ego’s unpredictability (similarity 0.81)
• Generalized media transmit selections across chains beyond everyday language (similarity 0.81)
• All communication media presuppose double contingent selectivity between partners (similarity 0.81)
• Power as a medium emerges only when contingent selection can be negated (similarity 0.80)
• Trust operates through generalization that detaches from specific experience (similarity 0.80)
• Trust operates within already-reduced forms of an anonymously generated lifeworld (similarity 0.80)
• Authority, reputation, and leadership are generalized motives for accepting influence (similarity 0.80)
• Power functions as a communication medium through double selectivity between alter and ego. (similarity 0.80)
• The three dimensions of influence generalization cannot be separated in practice (similarity 0.79)
• Even the most powerful now are objects without autonomy (similarity 0.79)
• Theorizing power requires borrowing general concepts from other domains rather than defining it directly (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Trust and power are generalized media converting improbable contingencies into stable meaning systems #corroborates (0.60)
• Indeterminacy and unexercised possibility underpin the generalization of influence #expands (0.55)
• Trust reduces the complexity of a free alter ego’s unpredictability #expands (0.50) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 247
• Trust arises not from powerlessness but from lack of full information about others. #corroborates (0.40) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 84