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"What’s in it for the finder to be honest enough to hand in the item?" By asking this question, you deny yourself access to its answer.
by vearwhershuh 7y ago
"What’s in it for the finder to be honest enough to hand in the item?"
By asking this question, you deny yourself access to its answer.
- ghostbrainalpha 7y agoWhen you take a basic moral truth, but then phrase it so that it will not immediately be apparent what you are saying.... You create the appearance of profound wisdom. And often book deals.
- munificent 7y agoStudies have shown people recall information better if they had to put some effort into acquiring it. Sometimes a profound wisdom lodges better if the "ah-ha" moment occurs in the reader's mind and not on the page.
- GuB-42 7y agoWhy? That's the kind of question that makes up the entire field of game theory. In every situation, the most natural strategy is to maximize personal gains. That's how natural selection works. But when people don't act like that, it means there must be some opposing force, normally one that benefits society. There is a lot to learn here, in fields as diverse as biology, economics, computing, and of course, games.
- vearwhershuh 7y agoExactly.
- reroute1 7y agoExactly what? > By asking this question, you deny yourself access to its answer. ... No it doesn't?
- someone7x 7y ago> In every situation, the most natural strategy is to maximize personal gains. The iterated prisoner's dilemma begs to differ. There are many many situations where cooperation is both natural and optimal.
- kube-system 7y ago> optimal i.e., there is something in it for them. It doesn't have to be a tangible thing, it could be a simple as self-satisfaction.
- samatman 7y agoThe iterated prisoner's dilemma does no such thing, as it's scored by maximizing personal gains. It does point to the advantages of not defecting on players who cooperate.
- james_s_tayler 7y agoWhat's fascinating about the iterated prisoners dilemma is there is no optimal strategy as the optimal strategy changes depending on the distribution of strategies in play. The best you can do if you have no idea what strategies are in place is to employ Tit For Tat (I think?) as it's optimal under the largest number of conditions but not all the time.
- simmanian 7y agoAs Hobbes writes in The Leviathan, Western civilization views the world as a "war of all men against all other men." Basically, the world is made up of individuals, and everyone is on their own, and they must fight with others in a zero-sum game to attain safety and happiness. If you subscribe to this view, it becomes harder for people to see that it's actually in your interest to act in good faith. That is how I understood GP's comment.
- james_s_tayler 7y agoI guess there's just this mentality of "the peace of all with all" instead of "the war of all against all". That's how it feels.
- SkyBelow 7y ago>Why? That's the kind of question that makes up the entire field of game theory. I think it depends upon the person who is asking. The average person asking it comes from a different perspective than someone who studies game theory and human nature asking the question.
- jshevek 7y agoI don't know what it means to say "that's how natural selection works" in this context. At times, evolutionary pressure favors cooperation and altruism.