Yeah, human systems all work on the honor system, via cultural pressures mostly. Either they work smoothly or they don’t, and which is kinda up to us. No system is immune to people making choices though. And we probably wouldn’t like it if we had one anyway.
On a similar note. Suppose a town has gone years without a fire and is planning to massively cut the fire departments budget. The fire chief believes this is a very bad idea and will eventually lead to a deadly disaster. Should the fire chief secretly set a fire in a way that does not endanger any people but causes enough damage to make the point?
IT department installs a button that must be pressed every day. Poison pill that shuts down the servers if they take a day off to prove a point.
When things are working, they should be invisible. But how do you measure how many resources they require to keep things working? Hard problem.
Scientists do that, actually. That’s how you get relatively early stage PhDs who have double digit citations. It’s less about having friends, and more about being part of a lab that has an influential circle, which is easier to pull off at “prestigious” universities.
