Why can’t we all just get along?

3mo

… or my leadership style as opposed to Stuart’s

When Stuart Krohn heard a commotion behind him at a Dodgers game, he turned to see that a man three rows back was choking. Dozens of people surrounding the man were panicking, impotent to help. But without a second thought, Stuart bounded up the three rows, lifted the man out of his seat, and began performing the Heimlich manoeuvre.

Main Character Energy

Stuart is one of those people that, when a group is called on, he assumes that he in particular is the one being addressed, and needs to respond. Stuart has what the kids these days call “Main Character Energy”, what we would have called... (read 1016 more words →)

Replying toHuman Values ≠ Goodness

James Stephen Brown3mo

Human Values ≠ Goodness

It is quite possible to hyperoptimize for that one particular yumminess, then burn out and later realize that one values other things too - as many a parent learns when the midlife crisis hits.

So true, this reminds me of Jung’s emphasis on “the shadow“—it’s important to acknowledge (and not discount) “values” you hold that are selfish or otherwise not ostensibly pro-social.

… your actual Values long term (which usually involves other people)

This is also important to note. We are often torn between selfish wants and the wants and needs of others. This can be framed as selfishness = bad, concern for others = good. But I think it’s better interpreted as you say, that “goodness” is usually aligned with our own long-term interests which are often also aligned with the interests of others. So your values need not be a zero-sum contest between your interests and the interests of others.

Dr Evil & Realpolitik

Rights & Liberties—are opposites

4mo

Why can’t we all just get along?

The news today is characterised by conflict, war, sanctions, tariffs and fracturing allegiances, distracting from the monumental issues we must face globally like climate change, inequality and AI. This post unpacks the cost of conflict in geopolitics today, by looking to theories of International Relations from a non-zero-sum perspective. We will learn about the two big approaches; Political Realism and Political Liberalism, and ask “which is really more realistic and sustainable?”.

There’s a famous scene in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) where Dr Evil awakens in the present day. In the boardroom of Virtucon—which he explains is “the legitimate face of my evil empire”—he proposes to... (read 1357 more words →)

James Stephen Brown5moQuick Take

I've been running into something I think of as "The Narrow Band Dilemma" where a moderate ethical position is fragile because it is in a battle on two fronts between a popular more pure ethical position and a popular unethical or a-moral position.

The first example is ethically produced meat / free-range farming, where a slightly more expensive product tries to find a market that loses patrons on both sides, either people who don't care about where their meat comes from, or care more about the expense than the ethics on the one hand, and the people who forgo meat altogether (vegans / vegetarians) on the other. As messaging successfully advertises the benefits... (read more)

Saidi, My Friend—what do we owe to each other?

6mo

During my misspent youth I partook in a number of polite “online disagreements” about religion. As a budding young wanderer in philosophy I felt one needed to ascend the godly terrain in order to reach higher ground. I learned much through these debates, honing my own philosophical position, but once in a while I’d be faced with an argument that would change my perspective.

One such shift came when my adversary framed the idea of Rights & Liberties in an interesting way, and it has shaped the way I interpret these terms—terms that are often used interchangeably.

Distinctly Interdependent

Rights and liberties can be interpreted as two sides of the state intervention coin, where the... (read 1153 more words →)

Emergence Is Beautiful—beauty and meaning in an entropic universe

6mo

The following post is about an important relationship in my life. It deals with my own experience with charitable giving and I feel a little uncomfortable about this. But I believe it’s important to share meaningful experiences. Giving What We Can suggests that stories about giving can open up possibilities for others to do the same.

I’ve been rewatching “The Good Place” with my daughter recently and have been reminded of T.M Scanlon’s contractualist question, quoted by the fictional professor of ethics Chidi Anagonye.

What do we owe to each other?

Contractualism suggests that our actions must be justifiable to others—that morality is about what no one could reasonably reject . It’s not about charity... (read 1264 more words →)

7mo

This story is reposted from nonzerosum.games where it appears in it’s intended form, full colour with functioning interactive elements, jump over to the site for the authentic experience.

At the beginning of this series, Steven Pinker suggests that emergent phenomena is something we find beautiful because we recognise the process we have to thank for our very existence. In Pinker’s own way he is making a secular appeal to seeing the hand of our “creator” (the principle of emergence) in the world around us.

Why Do We Find Things Beautiful?

There are many practical reasons we find things beautiful, vibrant ripe fruits tell us that there are calories to be had—and those saturated colours, evoke... (read 1341 more words →)

Replying toReplicators—Pandora’s dangerous children

Replicators—Pandora’s dangerous children

You're right, but the term teme covers much more than that, for instance it's also relevant to the development of AI agents, and AI self-editing / self-improvement. Although, identifying these systems as virus-like (because of the replication mechanism) might be instructive (as a red-flag).

Replicators—Pandora’s dangerous children

On The Shoulders of Substrates—how one phenomenon lays the foundation for the next

7mo

This story is reposted from nonzerosum.games where it appears in it’s intended form, full colour with functioning interactive elements, jump over to the site for the authentic experience.

On the Shoulders of Substrates looked at the substrate-phenomena-substrate cycle as a way of understanding emergence. But is there a better way to view these stages of emergence?

“What’s important are the replicators you have and the levels of replicators, one feeding on the one before.” — Susan Blackmore

In her 2008 TED Talk, Susan Blackmore proposed that we should instead focus on replicators. She defines three types of replicators; Genes, Memes, and her own contribution—Temes. I highly recommend listening to the talk to understand her fascinating... (read 736 more words →)

7mo

If you’ll cast your mind back to Emergence Vs Entropy, we found, in order to overcome entropy, an emergent system, like our planet, benefits from a consistent stream of energy from the sun—creating a substrate for life on earth. Yet the sun is still increasing the entropy of the system as a whole through its role as a dissipative structure.

The term “substrate” is used across many disciplines—denoting a base that supports dependent phenomena.

The Broad Shoulders Of Cyanobacteria

One of the most memorable stories of substrate emergence is that of cyanobacteria—you’ll remember it, of course, it’s very memorable.

No?

Well, what happened was, for two billion years, bacteria were the only form of life, and they... (read 669 more words →)

Replying toEmergent Gravity—order out of chaos

I agree, it's not coming across at all well at present, needs a rewrite, give me a couple of weeks :)

Replying toEmergent Gravity—order out of chaos

I take your point, I think it needs a rewrite, I have not been nearly clear enough, and your notes are helpful in pointing me to areas I need to clarify. I have replies to your points here, but I should get my ducks-in-a-row before making them, so I don't end up contradicting myself. Thanks for your comment.

Replying toEmergent Gravity—order out of chaos

Thanks Adele,

I appreciate your comment, and will take some time to process it and read the links. This is definitely not an area I have any expertise in and I'm not meaning to propose that this is how gravity actually works in reality—it's more an illustration that something gravity-like, and elements that are like atoms or systems etc can arise out of very simple and random rules without the need for fine-tuning, and that constants (or regularities) can be arrived at by means of natural equilibria rather than being lucked upon, or designed.

But I probably haven't made this clear. It was something I actually wrote I while ago and have only recently published here, so it may require a re-write, clarifying my intention and incorporating the points you've raised. You're the first to provide a rigorous rebuttal for it so far, so I appreciate you lending your expertise in this respect.

7mo

Important Note: This post is entirely speculative and is meant not as an explanation for gravity as-it-is, but rather a proof of concept that something gravity-like, and elements that are like atoms or natural systems etc can arise out of very simple and random rules without the need for fine-tuning, and that constants (or regularities) can be arrived at by means of natural equilibria rather than being lucked upon, or designed.

The picture above is from a simulation you can explore at nonzerosum.games and is the result of some very…

… Simple Rules

Randomly positioned points
Each point assigned one of 1-24 colours
Each colour has a randomly assigned but consistent attraction or repulsion from each colour

... (read 1271 more words →)

Replying toMoloch’s Demise—solving the original problem

Moloch’s Demise—solving the original problem

Ah, yes now you've jogged my memory about all the attempted expansionism in between. You make a solid case that they didn't step outside of the expand-or-die dichotomy willingly.

The point I'm trying to make is that the third option was there (perhaps it wasn't feasible before WWII, I'm not sure), but the third option (mutually beneficial trade and cooperation) ended up sustaining Japan from WWII to the present without the need for expansion.

The point of the post is that often there is often a third option outside of expand-or-die, and it's worth questioning what that could be in any given problem. But thanks for all the very good points—I absolutely agree with you that there have been civilisations that have had to, or have seemed to have to, expand in order to survive. Thanks for your well-considered points, and the spot-on history (apologies for the patchiness of mine).

Emergence vs Entropy—a universal paradox

Conway’s Game of Life—complexity emerges from simplicity

7mo

This story is reposted from nonzerosum.games where it appears in it’s intended form, full colour with functioning interactive elements, jump over to the site for the authentic experience.

In part 1, Conway’s Game of Life showed that complexity can emerge from simple rules. But this game takes place on a computer, in a world of discrete bits and bytes, not the messy universe in which we live.

Well, our universe too contains a principle of emergence that we have to thank for our very existence. Though, at first glance, this shouldn’t be possible, because of one universal law…

Entropy

The Second Law of Thermodynamics or “The Law of Entropy” can be understood in its simplest formulation... (read 996 more words →)

7mo

This story is reposted from nonzerosum.games where it appears in it’s intended form, full colour with functioning interactive elements, jump over to the site for the authentic experience.

A Non-Zero-Sum Universe

A non-zero-sum game is one in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and so a prerequisite for non-zero-sum games is that we live in a universe where the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, or more accurately speaking, can be more complex than its parts.

It’s not a given that this should be the case: nothing could continue to be nothing, something could continue to be that same thing, replication could lead to homogeneity-all of... (read 506 more words →)

Replying toMoloch’s Demise—solving the original problem

Moloch’s Demise—solving the original problem

I take your point, it requires everyone to behave themselves (I'm actually familiar with this history, I went down a Japanese history rabbit hole about this time last year, fascinating), but if we continue with Japan we find that due to a third option of trading-with-other-nations (beginning with the Meiji restoration I think...) Japan continues to operate as a sovereign nation without the need to expand (with the exception of its ill-fated and frankly bonkers attempt to expand in WWII...).

So, again it's good to look for answers outside the paradigm of expand or die. Cooperation and trade are non-zero-sum options that are available in the messy and therefore less theoretically-bound real world, as opposed to a formal game theory scenario.

But I think the expansionist trap you describe is a real thing and an important cautionary tale, which could perhaps be applied to our modern perpetual growth model of economics and its attendant consumerism (here I am sounding like a first year sociology major).

Replying toMoloch’s Demise—solving the original problem