= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
wedrifid comments on Exploitation and cooperation in ecology, government, business, and AI - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (43)
One idea in my essay is that it's easier to look at the structure, and see what type of relationship it's compatible with, than to evaluate how exploitative the relationship is. Feudalism's relationships were claimed to be mutually beneficial. You could spend a lot of time arguing whether that was the case; or you could just look at the structure, and say, "Hmm, evidence against."
They did have benefits, and those benefits seem to fit in nicely with the model you presented. What the exploiter (lord, baron, earl, king, etc) gives to the subject is protection from other exploiters who may be worse or who at very least will be 'more'. Even enforcing laws would just be modelled here as preventing exploitive relationships. If Y is exploited by X then X will benefit from killing potential exploiter Z. This is a 'mutual benefit' in the X-Y relationship but it does not suggest 'mutualistic', in the defined sense.