I think the hard reification of villagers and werewolves winds up stopping curiosity at the wrong places in the abstraction stack. Seeing agents as following mixed strategies determined by local incentives which tend to be set by super-cooperators and super-defectors seems better to me. It’s also a much more tractable problem and matches what I see on the ground in orgs.
Incentives matter, but trauma matters too. And learning what it’s like to “play Werewolf” or “play Villager” on purpose in a stereotyped environment with divided roles is helpful for learning the discernment to notice these processes, which are often quite subtle.
I think the hard reification of villagers and werewolves winds up stopping curiosity at the wrong places in the abstraction stack. Seeing agents as following mixed strategies determined by local incentives which tend to be set by super-cooperators and super-defectors seems better to me. It’s also a much more tractable problem and matches what I see on the ground in orgs.
Incentives matter, but trauma matters too. And learning what it’s like to “play Werewolf” or “play Villager” on purpose in a stereotyped environment with divided roles is helpful for learning the discernment to notice these processes, which are often quite subtle.