I think “trade” and “communication” are linked, and seem to exist on a spectrum that correlates to creatures’ ability to predict the future. At the one extreme, we have gardeners who get plants to do what they wish by shaping the environment that the plants grow in. Near the middle, we have our interactions with domestic animals. At the other extreme, we have modern capitalism, where people exchange money for time spent on tasks they often wouldn’t consider doing without the pay.
I suspect that where an interaction falls on that spectrum has a lot to do with the creature’s ability to suppress its “nature”, desires etc, in pursuit of longer-term goals. The better we communicate with an organism, the more we can promise it some future reward to change its present actions. The better at planning you get, the more you can start reasoning about risks, future rewards, etc.
I cannot communicate with the plants in my garden, so I have to actually provide them with the light and water and nutrients and protection that they need in order for them to grow. I cannot communicate with bees* , so to keep a hive of them, I need to make the hive more appealing than the other locations that the colony might consider swarming to.
Chickens can predict the future better than plants. Often when I open the door of the house nearest their run, it’s because I’m about to throw them some table scraps. Thus, they come running when they hear the door open or see me outside, because they assess that there’s a high probability of being the first to the snacks if they hurry.
Dogs predict the future actions of humans quite well, and behave in ways that they anticipate will get the responses they want. We’re capable of relatively nuanced communication with dogs: “if you sit and then offer me your paw and then shake my hand, you’ll get a treat!” or “Don’t eat my livestock and I will feed you what I want you to eat”. Wolves aren’t as good at predicting humans’ future behavior, and thus we have a harder time coexisting closely with them, because we can’t strike the “don’t eat what I don’t want you to” kinds of bargains.
People can (usually) predict the future better than chickens or dogs. I do my job, work on multi-month or multi-year initiatives, and attend a bunch of meetings not for the promise of immediate reward, but because I anticipate a paycheque in a few weeks and better financial health long-term due to good benefits such as 401k matching.
These interactions all happen on the level of the worse communicator. Trading is only as good as the least trustworthy party in the deal, etc. I suspect that an AI might find it most effective to get along with people by treating people like people treat people—I get along with my chickens by understanding the flock hierarchy social rules, one gets along with dogs by understanding dog social rules, etc.
Technically, I can tell certain kinds of lies to a colony of bees in order to influence their behavior. Classic example is that I can lie to the bees by claiming there’s a forest fire and they should get ready for their hive to be destroyed, which is what I do if I blow smoke into the hive. When they think there’s a fire coming, they all eat as much honey as they can, because if they have to fly away then they only get to take the food they’re carrying. When a bee has its stomach full of honey, she cannot bend over in the gesture necessary to sting, and she probably doesn’t want to anyways, like how you probably don’t want to get in a fight right after a huge meal. (only she-bees can sting, he-bees develop reproductive anatomy instead with the parts that become the she-bees’ stingers)
I think “trade” and “communication” are linked, and seem to exist on a spectrum that correlates to creatures’ ability to predict the future. At the one extreme, we have gardeners who get plants to do what they wish by shaping the environment that the plants grow in. Near the middle, we have our interactions with domestic animals. At the other extreme, we have modern capitalism, where people exchange money for time spent on tasks they often wouldn’t consider doing without the pay.
I suspect that where an interaction falls on that spectrum has a lot to do with the creature’s ability to suppress its “nature”, desires etc, in pursuit of longer-term goals. The better we communicate with an organism, the more we can promise it some future reward to change its present actions. The better at planning you get, the more you can start reasoning about risks, future rewards, etc.
I cannot communicate with the plants in my garden, so I have to actually provide them with the light and water and nutrients and protection that they need in order for them to grow. I cannot communicate with bees* , so to keep a hive of them, I need to make the hive more appealing than the other locations that the colony might consider swarming to.
Chickens can predict the future better than plants. Often when I open the door of the house nearest their run, it’s because I’m about to throw them some table scraps. Thus, they come running when they hear the door open or see me outside, because they assess that there’s a high probability of being the first to the snacks if they hurry.
Dogs predict the future actions of humans quite well, and behave in ways that they anticipate will get the responses they want. We’re capable of relatively nuanced communication with dogs: “if you sit and then offer me your paw and then shake my hand, you’ll get a treat!” or “Don’t eat my livestock and I will feed you what I want you to eat”. Wolves aren’t as good at predicting humans’ future behavior, and thus we have a harder time coexisting closely with them, because we can’t strike the “don’t eat what I don’t want you to” kinds of bargains.
People can (usually) predict the future better than chickens or dogs. I do my job, work on multi-month or multi-year initiatives, and attend a bunch of meetings not for the promise of immediate reward, but because I anticipate a paycheque in a few weeks and better financial health long-term due to good benefits such as 401k matching.
These interactions all happen on the level of the worse communicator. Trading is only as good as the least trustworthy party in the deal, etc. I suspect that an AI might find it most effective to get along with people by treating people like people treat people—I get along with my chickens by understanding the flock hierarchy social rules, one gets along with dogs by understanding dog social rules, etc.
Technically, I can tell certain kinds of lies to a colony of bees in order to influence their behavior. Classic example is that I can lie to the bees by claiming there’s a forest fire and they should get ready for their hive to be destroyed, which is what I do if I blow smoke into the hive. When they think there’s a fire coming, they all eat as much honey as they can, because if they have to fly away then they only get to take the food they’re carrying. When a bee has its stomach full of honey, she cannot bend over in the gesture necessary to sting, and she probably doesn’t want to anyways, like how you probably don’t want to get in a fight right after a huge meal. (only she-bees can sting, he-bees develop reproductive anatomy instead with the parts that become the she-bees’ stingers)