Coordination can improve default outcomes, i.e. what happens when individuals act according to their own interest assuming others will do the same.
For example in a flat share the default outcome may be that the common areas stay dirty because each flatmate is willing to spend time cleaning only if they are confident that all other flatmates will also spend time cleaning ; in the absence of coordination there is no such confidence so the common areas stay dirty.
Such coordination challenges come up often in daily life. Another example that comes to mind is choosing a leader, whether for a sport team on a small scale, or a country on a larger scale. This coordination issue first requires to get everyone to agree that a leader is needed, and then to agree on a method to choose that leader.
We can view each situation as being in one of several possible equilibria (dirty versus clean common areas, not having a leader versus having one), and coordination protocols as the way to take us from one equilibrium to another.
This raises the question: what protocol can we use to get to a better equilibrium for the situations we care about?
To answer this question, I suggest we should aggregate a “coordination cookbook”: just like having a list of recipes is useful when cooking, so too having a list of issues paired to coordination protocols would be useful when navigating coordination issues of any scale.
Humanity has accumulated a lot of tacit knowledge about coordination. Societies with their organizations, laws and infrastructures ; cultures, traditions, religions and rituals already impart us with know-how and protocols for many issues. Making these protocols explicit, comparing them and improving them could be a good starting point.
I hope you find this idea of coordination cookbook stimulating.
Please feel free to share:
your own experience and protocols for solving coordination issues
[Question] A Coordination Cookbook?
Coordination can improve default outcomes, i.e. what happens when individuals act according to their own interest assuming others will do the same.
For example in a flat share the default outcome may be that the common areas stay dirty because each flatmate is willing to spend time cleaning only if they are confident that all other flatmates will also spend time cleaning ; in the absence of coordination there is no such confidence so the common areas stay dirty.
Such coordination challenges come up often in daily life. Another example that comes to mind is choosing a leader, whether for a sport team on a small scale, or a country on a larger scale. This coordination issue first requires to get everyone to agree that a leader is needed, and then to agree on a method to choose that leader.
We can view each situation as being in one of several possible equilibria (dirty versus clean common areas, not having a leader versus having one), and coordination protocols as the way to take us from one equilibrium to another.
This raises the question: what protocol can we use to get to a better equilibrium for the situations we care about?
To answer this question, I suggest we should aggregate a “coordination cookbook”: just like having a list of recipes is useful when cooking, so too having a list of issues paired to coordination protocols would be useful when navigating coordination issues of any scale.
Humanity has accumulated a lot of tacit knowledge about coordination. Societies with their organizations, laws and infrastructures ; cultures, traditions, religions and rituals already impart us with know-how and protocols for many issues. Making these protocols explicit, comparing them and improving them could be a good starting point.
I hope you find this idea of coordination cookbook stimulating.
Please feel free to share:
your own experience and protocols for solving coordination issues
existing resources
any other relevant insights
Thank you for engaging.
Relevant material:
https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/coordination-cooperation
https://equilibriabook.com/