I think humans actually do use SPI pretty frequently, if I understand correctly. Some examples:
Pre-committing to resolving disputes through arbitration instead of the normal judiciary process. In theory at least, this results in an isomorphic “game”, but with lower legal costs, thereby constituting a Pareto improvement.
Ritualized aggression: Directly analogous to the Nerf gun example. E.g. a bear will “commit” to giving up its territory to another bear who can roar louder, without the need of them actually fighting, which would be costly for both parties.
This example is maybe especially interesting because it implies that SPIs are (easily?) discoverable by “blind optimization” processes like evolution, and don’t need some sort of intelligence or social context.
And it also gives an example of your point about not needing to know that the other party has committed to the SPI—bears presumably don’t have the ability to credibly commit, but the SPI still (usually) goes through
I think humans actually do use SPI pretty frequently, if I understand correctly. Some examples:
Pre-committing to resolving disputes through arbitration instead of the normal judiciary process. In theory at least, this results in an isomorphic “game”, but with lower legal costs, thereby constituting a Pareto improvement.
Ritualized aggression: Directly analogous to the Nerf gun example. E.g. a bear will “commit” to giving up its territory to another bear who can roar louder, without the need of them actually fighting, which would be costly for both parties.
This example is maybe especially interesting because it implies that SPIs are (easily?) discoverable by “blind optimization” processes like evolution, and don’t need some sort of intelligence or social context.
And it also gives an example of your point about not needing to know that the other party has committed to the SPI—bears presumably don’t have the ability to credibly commit, but the SPI still (usually) goes through