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Kaj_Sotala comments on AALWA: Ask any LessWronger anything - Less Wrong
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Sure, you can ask me anything.
I have an idea for a video game that can teach microeconomics. It would create a persistent low-graphics world similar to what's in the game Travian and would require no artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, I can't program beyond the level of what they teach in codecademy. Do you have suggestions for people I could contact to get financial support for my game? I'm the author of a microeconomics textbook and so I think I have a credible background for this project.
Hmm. I haven't really looked into any actual funding agencies or the "getting money for this" side at this point, so I don't know much about that, but I can think of some researchers who might either have an interest in collaborating, or who could know more direct sources of funding. Two groups that come to mind who might be worth contacting in this regard are GAPS and Institute of Play. I'll let you know if I think of any others. (If you do contact them, I'd be curious to hear about the response.)
What is the intended audience for this game? Why, do you think, people will play it?
Students taking introductory or intermediate microeconomics. Instructors would require their students to play.
Ah, so this is purely non-commercial, a course teaching aid, basically.
Can't you rope some grad students into doing this?
I would love to make money off of it, and have a revenue model but I would also be willing to do it for free.
My school doesn't have econ grad students. Also, it wouldn't be a good career move for a grad student who wanted to become a professor to devote lots of time to this.
So the target market is economics departments at other colleges/universities? You're are talking essentially about a piece of education software sold to institutions, not to end users/players.
In this case, I think, you'll have to make a business case for the proposition. I am not sure enough people will find this idea fun enough to contribute their time for free.
Another point: do you really have to develop a new game from scratch? Doing a mod of an existing game or engine is likely to be vastly simpler and cheaper.
IIRC you are interested in educational games, any new thoughts in that area?
Depends on what you mean by new: I elaborated on some of my core ideas about the field in the blog posts Why edugames don't have to suck, Videogames will revolutionize school (not necessarily the way you think), and also touched upon their role in society in Doing Good in the Addiction Economy. My thoughts have gotten somewhat more precise, but off-hand I can't think of any major recent insights that I wouldn't have mentioned in those posts.
On the topic of the educational game that I'm doing for my Master's Thesis, I'm making slow but sure progress.
Yes, I had read those posts before which is why I knew you were involved in the field. Good luck with your thesis - I think games have huge potential in education, but it will be difficult because educational games are aiming at a smaller target than normal ones.
Why are you utilitarian?
Inspired by this.
At heart, utilitarianism feels like what you get when you ask yourself, "would I rather see few people hurt than many, many people happy rather than few, and how important do I think that to be", answer "I'd rather see few people hurt, rather see many people happy, and this is important", and then apply that systematically. Or if you just imagine yourself as having one miserable or fantastic experience, and then ask yourself what it would be like to have that experience many times over, or whether the impact of that experience is at all diminished just because it happens to many different people. Basically, utilitarianism feels like applied empathy.
So, if someone lacks empathy, utilitarianism is senseless to them?
Well, the particular rationale that I gave might be. Possibly they might find it sensible for some other reason.
Indeed. "utilitarianism feels like what you get when you ask" this, let you empathy take over and think it to its 'logical conclusion'.
The problem I have with this kind of reasoning that it leads into extremes that don't match up with your other values. Oh it might not look like a conflict. But I sometimes get the impression that this is because the daubt is compartmentalized away because the empathy is such a positively valued emotion and not following it feels wrong.
I have to admit that me not being a utilitarian I don't have a clear cut answer of how to rationally act on my empathy either. The problem with complex value functions is that there are no simple answers and utilitarianism suspiciously looks like another simplistic answer to a complex problem.