I had the exact same reflex-thought. It helps to visualize these scenarios or hypothetical problems as virtual scenes in a computer game, where each player gets points for acting according to whatever criteria fit the problem’s stated agent-goals.
Since the player is just controlling a virtual avatar and merely wants the points, the behaviors postulated often suddenly start making sense, since the real player doesn’t really care about other concerns that would normally be very important in “real life”.
This is how I initially approached the Prisoner’s Dilemma. You’re sitting at a computer, and you’re playing the Prisoner’s Dilemma to get points to virtually purchase a shinier sword in a videogame. You can’t play more than one round per hour. You do kinda really want that sword, though. “There”, I thought, “this makes a lot more sense now.”
Not sure it would work for me. My sense of empathy is way too strong: I mean, if I look at this animation and follow one of the balls, I kind-of instinctively feel sorry for it after particularly hard or close-together collisions!
More seriously, one time that I actually entered the mind-set that I cared about nothing but winning a zero-sum game (chess) against my opponent (who I had never met before, and I didn’t expect ever meeting afterwards), I ended up using all kinds of dark arts to make him play worse (e.g. verbally humiliating him after each blunder of his—I had the impression he was about to break down and cry); I did win the game but I felt awful—more or less the way EY described here.
[...]I ended up using all kinds of dark arts to make him play worse (e.g. verbally humiliating him after each blunder of his—I had the impression he was about to break down and cry)
This is also one of the things people actually do in those videogames, unfortunately. If someone really wants that sword, they won’t shy away from sending threatening /whispers and using all kinds of verbal abuse/trickery. In situations like the prisoner’s dilemma, I suspect a favorite of many a younger gamer (think young teen) would be “You’re too chicken to Cooperate! Go on, be the sissy and Defect!”.
I had the exact same reflex-thought. It helps to visualize these scenarios or hypothetical problems as virtual scenes in a computer game, where each player gets points for acting according to whatever criteria fit the problem’s stated agent-goals.
Since the player is just controlling a virtual avatar and merely wants the points, the behaviors postulated often suddenly start making sense, since the real player doesn’t really care about other concerns that would normally be very important in “real life”.
This is how I initially approached the Prisoner’s Dilemma. You’re sitting at a computer, and you’re playing the Prisoner’s Dilemma to get points to virtually purchase a shinier sword in a videogame. You can’t play more than one round per hour. You do kinda really want that sword, though. “There”, I thought, “this makes a lot more sense now.”
Not sure it would work for me. My sense of empathy is way too strong: I mean, if I look at this animation and follow one of the balls, I kind-of instinctively feel sorry for it after particularly hard or close-together collisions!
More seriously, one time that I actually entered the mind-set that I cared about nothing but winning a zero-sum game (chess) against my opponent (who I had never met before, and I didn’t expect ever meeting afterwards), I ended up using all kinds of dark arts to make him play worse (e.g. verbally humiliating him after each blunder of his—I had the impression he was about to break down and cry); I did win the game but I felt awful—more or less the way EY described here.
This is also one of the things people actually do in those videogames, unfortunately. If someone really wants that sword, they won’t shy away from sending threatening /whispers and using all kinds of verbal abuse/trickery. In situations like the prisoner’s dilemma, I suspect a favorite of many a younger gamer (think young teen) would be “You’re too chicken to Cooperate! Go on, be the sissy and Defect!”.