This post begins the Immoral Mazes sequence. See introduction for an overview of the plan. Before we get to the mazes, we need some background first.

Meditations on Moloch

Consider Scott Alexander’s Meditations on Moloch. I will summarize here. 

Therein lie fourteen scenarios where participants can be caught in bad equilibria.

1. In an iterated prisoner’s dilemma, two players keep playing defect.
2. In a dollar auction, participants massively overpay.
3. A group of fisherman fail to coordinate on using filters that efficiently benefit the group, because they can’t punish those who don’t profi by not using the filters.
4. Rats are caught in a permanent Malthusian trap where only those who do nothing but compete and consume survive. All others are outcompeted.
5. Capitalists serve a perfectly competitive market, and cannot pay a living wage.
6. The tying of all good