That’s not as bad an idea as your post’s −3 rating suggests. First of all, what’s to ensure the aliens even keep their word? (I haven’t seen this episode, so I don’t know how that’s handled.) For all we know, this could just be their way of “trolling” us so we get into an intraspecies flamewar and thus be unprepared for their actual plans, which are to attack and take whatever living children they can.
In that case, the “nuclear option” is to “kill the children before the aliens get to them” .. which ends the human race anyway. And if the human race is going to end anyway, why not take as many of them down with us as we can?
Perhaps I should rephrase it: I don’t want to assert that it would’ve been objectively better for them to not give up the children. But can someone explain to me why it’s MORE rational to give up in this situation?
I think it’s my fault. I posted a… rather unpopular article about compromise.
I agree with your hawk/brinksmanship analysis of the strategy. I’ve found in life that ‘the easy way out’ is usually not so easy. I’m still trying to break it down into game-theory language appropriate for this site, however.
By calling the downvotes your fault, it seems that you’re asserting that your post is a causal ancestor of the downvotes, which is a bit off, I think. I’d guess that the downvotes of your post and the downvotes of jwdink’s comment have a common cause (that being a certain utility-maximizing mindset and/or set of preferences), but are not otherwise causally related.
That’s not as bad an idea as your post’s −3 rating suggests. First of all, what’s to ensure the aliens even keep their word? (I haven’t seen this episode, so I don’t know how that’s handled.) For all we know, this could just be their way of “trolling” us so we get into an intraspecies flamewar and thus be unprepared for their actual plans, which are to attack and take whatever living children they can.
In that case, the “nuclear option” is to “kill the children before the aliens get to them” .. which ends the human race anyway. And if the human race is going to end anyway, why not take as many of them down with us as we can?
I’m surprised that was so downvoted too.
Perhaps I should rephrase it: I don’t want to assert that it would’ve been objectively better for them to not give up the children. But can someone explain to me why it’s MORE rational to give up in this situation?
I think it’s my fault. I posted a… rather unpopular article about compromise.
I agree with your hawk/brinksmanship analysis of the strategy. I’ve found in life that ‘the easy way out’ is usually not so easy. I’m still trying to break it down into game-theory language appropriate for this site, however.
By calling the downvotes your fault, it seems that you’re asserting that your post is a causal ancestor of the downvotes, which is a bit off, I think. I’d guess that the downvotes of your post and the downvotes of jwdink’s comment have a common cause (that being a certain utility-maximizing mindset and/or set of preferences), but are not otherwise causally related.