When defectors thrive in a mixed population due to selection pressures, more individuals will adapt by choosing defection. Over time, this process erodes the number of cooperators until they eventually all become defectors.
This contradicts a paper “FDT in an evolutionary environment” linked in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/oR8hdkjuBrvpHmzGF/found-paper-fdt-in-an-evolutionary-environment, which argues that in similar situations defectors may be less competitive than intelligent agents (which, by the way, cooperate among themselves). Also, evolution didn’t produce purely selfish entities… for me it suggests that one of more important reasons of defection (and mutual defection) is limit on cognition (so, bounds on rationality).
Good point. I will cover a lot of this in part 2. Essentially I think we are falling victim to survivorship bias. E.g. we will find ourselves in a place in the universe where cooperation is more common since it is needed for complex life and observers like us.
This contradicts a paper “FDT in an evolutionary environment” linked in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/oR8hdkjuBrvpHmzGF/found-paper-fdt-in-an-evolutionary-environment, which argues that in similar situations defectors may be less competitive than intelligent agents (which, by the way, cooperate among themselves). Also, evolution didn’t produce purely selfish entities… for me it suggests that one of more important reasons of defection (and mutual defection) is limit on cognition (so, bounds on rationality).
Good point. I will cover a lot of this in part 2. Essentially I think we are falling victim to survivorship bias. E.g. we will find ourselves in a place in the universe where cooperation is more common since it is needed for complex life and observers like us.