Symbiosis is ubiquitous in the natural world, and is a good example of cooperation across what we normally would consider entity boundaries.
When I say the world selects for “cooperation” I mean it selects for entities that try to engage in positive-sum interactions with other entities, in contrast to entities that try to win zero-sum conflicts (power-seeking).
Agreed with the complicity point—as evo-sim experiments like Axelrod’s showed us, selecting for cooperation requires entities that can punish defectors, a condition the world of “hammers” fails to satisfy.
Power-seeking conflict might be zero- or negative-sum in terms of its immediate effect, yet the order which is established after the conflict is over (perhaps, temporarily) is not necessarily zero-sum. Dictatorship is not a zero-sum order, it could be even more productive in the short run than democracy.
Symbiosis is ubiquitous in the natural world, and is a good example of cooperation across what we normally would consider entity boundaries.
When I say the world selects for “cooperation” I mean it selects for entities that try to engage in positive-sum interactions with other entities, in contrast to entities that try to win zero-sum conflicts (power-seeking).
Agreed with the complicity point—as evo-sim experiments like Axelrod’s showed us, selecting for cooperation requires entities that can punish defectors, a condition the world of “hammers” fails to satisfy.
Power-seeking conflict might be zero- or negative-sum in terms of its immediate effect, yet the order which is established after the conflict is over (perhaps, temporarily) is not necessarily zero-sum. Dictatorship is not a zero-sum order, it could be even more productive in the short run than democracy.