One possible explanatory model is that status is like money—a resource that’s applicable to a huge variety of terminal goals, and something that rational agents will pursue, regardless of their actual goals. See https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/instrumental-convergence for a lot of related posts.
One possible explanatory model is that status is like money—a resource that’s applicable to a huge variety of terminal goals, and something that rational agents will pursue, regardless of their actual goals. See https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/instrumental-convergence for a lot of related posts.