Seems to me that an important aspect of culture is how it organizes “zero-sum” games between its members. I am using scare quotes because a game which is zero-sum (or negative-sum) for its two active players can still generate positive or negative externalities for the rest of the tribe. And because some resources are scarce, and there will be a competition for them, it is nice when the energy of the competition can be channeled into some benefit for the rest of the tribe.
For example, in the hacker culture, one gains status by contributing quality code, so whoever wins more imaginary “most awesome coder” point, billions of people will get free software. Or there are cultures where the traditional way to signal wealth is to donate stuff to other members. An opposite would be a culture where people signal wealth e.g. by wearing expensive watches. (Although it could be argued that this creates some positive externalities too, e.g. job opportunities for the watchmakers.)
I am not sure about this, but I have a feeling that if you want to design a culture that is a nice place to live in, you should encourage pro-social activities as the recommended way to do costly signaling.
Sports are probably also an example of this, when people translate their desire to win (as individuals or teams) into entertainment for others. As opposed to e.g. street fighting which would put lives and property of others in risk. (But people are already aware that sports are “violence made harmless”; my suggestion is to focus on competition in abstract, not only physical violence as its one specific form.)
Seems to me that an important aspect of culture is how it organizes “zero-sum” games between its members. I am using scare quotes because a game which is zero-sum (or negative-sum) for its two active players can still generate positive or negative externalities for the rest of the tribe. And because some resources are scarce, and there will be a competition for them, it is nice when the energy of the competition can be channeled into some benefit for the rest of the tribe.
For example, in the hacker culture, one gains status by contributing quality code, so whoever wins more imaginary “most awesome coder” point, billions of people will get free software. Or there are cultures where the traditional way to signal wealth is to donate stuff to other members. An opposite would be a culture where people signal wealth e.g. by wearing expensive watches. (Although it could be argued that this creates some positive externalities too, e.g. job opportunities for the watchmakers.)
I am not sure about this, but I have a feeling that if you want to design a culture that is a nice place to live in, you should encourage pro-social activities as the recommended way to do costly signaling.
Sports are probably also an example of this, when people translate their desire to win (as individuals or teams) into entertainment for others. As opposed to e.g. street fighting which would put lives and property of others in risk. (But people are already aware that sports are “violence made harmless”; my suggestion is to focus on competition in abstract, not only physical violence as its one specific form.)