Zoltraak: Competition versus Stagnation

There is a Japanese anime entitled Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. While anime has a justly-deserved reputation for being over-the-top and goofy, this particular series bucks the trend. The plot follows Frieren, an elven mage. Elves in this universe are incredibly long-lived; their typical lifespan reaches thousands of years long. Frieren was part of a party of heroes who defeated the Demon King, the leader of a powerful nation of predators who hunted humans, elves, and the other humanoid races. Due to Frieren’s long life, she outlives her companions and, as time moves on past their great victory over the Demon King, so too do the memories of their time together begin to fade. The show is about Frieren’s grief and her unexpected (to her) desire to preserve the memories of her friends.

The show also has many economic themes and examples. I have a series of blog posts planned discussing these as I progress through my rewatch. This post is the first of what I hope will be many. I will do my best to keep posts spoiler free, but when necessary, I will label spoilers.

In the episode Killing Magic (season 1, episode 3), Frieren and her human apprentice Fern head to a village where a powerful general in the Demon King’s army has been sealed away since the war 80 years earlier. During the war, this general, Qual, devastated the human armies with a powerful spell named Zoltraak. This spell could bypass all barriers; there was no counter for it. Its very name struck terror into the hearts of the humans. This was the stuff of legends. Indeed, Qual itself was so powerful that it could only be sealed away; no magic could touch it.

Fast-forward 80 years (to the present) and the seal around Qual has failed. Frieren and Fern arrive to destroy Qual once and for all. Qual, recognizing Frieren from the battle 80 years earlier, proceeds to threaten her and unleashes his all-powerful spell. Fern blocks the spell. Fern’s surprise is palpable: “I don’t understand, Mistress Frieren. That was just ordinary offensive magic.” Frieren goes on to explain: humans, unlike demons and elves, are not innately magical. They’ve had to adapt and overcome the challenges facing them. Conversely, demons are innately and powerfully magical; they do not know how to adapt. They just bludgeon everything until it submits. When Zoltraak devastated human armies decades ago, the humans dedicated themselves to reverse-engineering it, understanding it, and perfecting it. More importantly, the humans simplified it and it became so common that this spell, once solely in the hands of just one extraordinarily powerful demon, is now commonplace against even the lowest-skilled human mages.

Here we see a demonstration of what Julian Simon calls “the ultimate resource,” namely the human mind. Humans are insanely creative when faced with problems. When prices are allowed to fluctuate (signaling relative scarcity/abundance) and proper institutions are in place that allow for and reward creativity, humanity is able to accomplish amazing things. Consequently, the impossible becomes not only possible, but commonplace. Coupled with the fact that technological change is a combinatorial process, it becomes mind-boggling what problems free humans can overcome.

Thus, we see another implication: that problems sow the seeds of their own destruction (or, as Frieren put it: “Zoltraak is just too powerful”). Faced with challenges, humans will overcome. If protected from challenges, stagnation results. To quote the economist Mark Perry: “competition breeds competence.” Competition not only breeds competence, but breeds superiority. Let us unleash human creativity.