you can understand quite clearly how the world would be better off if everyone cooperated, and nevertheless feel that your best individual course of action is to defect around the edges and try to hide it.
Semi-formally (and game-theoretic understandings should generate this independently) your best course of action is to defect only where pr(found out) disutility of being found out *< gain of defecting—gain of cooperating.
This is my understanding of what you wrote—given that it’s what you intended, this is the way society actually works. Even theistic people unconsciously perform this operation—witness the cases of evangelists thinking they can hide it.
What’s more, and this is only an informal observation on my part, success in society seems to involve some level of defecting around the edges. At least in Australia, the tall poppy syndrome and the popularity of trashy magazines seems to me like an outcome of people suspecting that successful people have defected around the edges, and trying to uncover where they have hidden it.
Basically, it’s my view that defecting around the edges (given that I define the edges correctly) is not something to avoid.
Semi-formally (and game-theoretic understandings should generate this independently) your best course of action is to defect only where pr(found out) * disutility of being found out < gain of defecting—gain of cooperating.
Yes, but only if you’re selfish. If you’re an idealist, then “your best course of action” might be to play by the rules even when P(caught)U(caught) << U(D) - U(C).
Note that this issue is harder than it looks to define away—if you define utility in terms of some ideology (international socialism) or species (humanity) so as to include your preference for playing by the rules, then we can still worry about cases where people of good faith but different ideologies (Spanish Civil War) or species (Three Worlds Collide) are trying to work together. In those cases, your urge to play by your own flavor of altruistic rules is in conflict with tropes like honesty, honor, and symmetry.
Institutions like markets can accomplish a whole hell of a lot with people who always cheat around the edges, but there are a few, erm, edge cases where it’s really handy to have a couple of reliably honest people around. Somebody has to watch the watchers, and it probably doesn’t hurt if they truly believe that God is watching them.
Even theistic people unconsciously perform this operation—witness the cases of evangelists thinking they can hide it.
I suspect that fundamentalists who take vacations with rent boys just have bad character; there are plenty of religious people with bad character. My claim isn’t that religion does make you a better person; my claim is that religion opens doors to self-improvement techniques that make you a better person. Any given theist still has to invest hundreds of hours in learning and applying the techniques in order to see any benefits. Most of 21st century organized religion is very bad at screening out religious leaders who don’t learn or don’t apply the techniques.
Semi-formally (and game-theoretic understandings should generate this independently) your best course of action is to defect only where pr(found out) disutility of being found out *< gain of defecting—gain of cooperating.
This is my understanding of what you wrote—given that it’s what you intended, this is the way society actually works. Even theistic people unconsciously perform this operation—witness the cases of evangelists thinking they can hide it.
What’s more, and this is only an informal observation on my part, success in society seems to involve some level of defecting around the edges. At least in Australia, the tall poppy syndrome and the popularity of trashy magazines seems to me like an outcome of people suspecting that successful people have defected around the edges, and trying to uncover where they have hidden it.
Basically, it’s my view that defecting around the edges (given that I define the edges correctly) is not something to avoid.
Yes, but only if you’re selfish. If you’re an idealist, then “your best course of action” might be to play by the rules even when P(caught)U(caught) << U(D) - U(C).
Note that this issue is harder than it looks to define away—if you define utility in terms of some ideology (international socialism) or species (humanity) so as to include your preference for playing by the rules, then we can still worry about cases where people of good faith but different ideologies (Spanish Civil War) or species (Three Worlds Collide) are trying to work together. In those cases, your urge to play by your own flavor of altruistic rules is in conflict with tropes like honesty, honor, and symmetry.
Institutions like markets can accomplish a whole hell of a lot with people who always cheat around the edges, but there are a few, erm, edge cases where it’s really handy to have a couple of reliably honest people around. Somebody has to watch the watchers, and it probably doesn’t hurt if they truly believe that God is watching them.
I suspect that fundamentalists who take vacations with rent boys just have bad character; there are plenty of religious people with bad character. My claim isn’t that religion does make you a better person; my claim is that religion opens doors to self-improvement techniques that make you a better person. Any given theist still has to invest hundreds of hours in learning and applying the techniques in order to see any benefits. Most of 21st century organized religion is very bad at screening out religious leaders who don’t learn or don’t apply the techniques.