The Parasite Dilemma

[ctj]

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If I feel everyone is going to contribute, why wouldnt I play parasite?


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Because of a reason you haven't thought of. A reason that depends on creative thinking. A reason that takes you outside your box of logic. A reason that the professional theoreticians are still working on formulating. A reason you will never discover unless you look for it.

PairTheBoard

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It seems to me that you are complaining that game-theoretical analysis of a 1-time Prisoner's Dilemma doesn't apply to iterated Prisoners' Dilemmas. Pure parasite strategies tend to do very badly in iterated scenarios.

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But this is not an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. This is a one time multiplayer Parasite Dilemma. I designed it so that it has the flavor of an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma without the interations. So does your observation that pure parasite strategies do poorly in Iterated Prisoner's Dilemmas have any applicability to this one time Parasite Dilemma?

PairTheBoard

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I'm saying that:
1. Your Parasite Dilemma seems like a standard Prisoner's Dilemma; it just has more 'prisoners'.

2. You note that co-operation would be 'better' than basing one's (one-time) play on Game Theory.

3. But co-operation can only evolve when the 'game' is iterated, and only when the 'cheaters' can be identified and punished.

4. Human society is much more like multiple simultaneous iterated Prisoners' Dilemmas (actually Multilemmas). It seems to me that we're well-adapted co-operating (and to detecting and punishing cheats and 'free-riders') in small to medium-sized communities (up to a small village). We're not so well adapated to dealing with human parasites in modern society's mega-communities.

[PairTheBoard]

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3. But co-operation can only evolve when the 'game' is iterated, and only when the 'cheaters' can be identified and punished.


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That's what the theoretical status quo says. But in this case, as in the Traveler's Dilemma, there is a great deal of incentive for people to find a way to inject their thinking with a kind of virtual evolutionary process that mimics what would actually occur with iterations.

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4. Human society is much more like multiple simultaneous iterated Prisoners' Dilemmas (actually Multilemmas). It seems to me that we're well-adapted co-operating (and to detecting and punishing cheats and 'free-riders') in small to medium-sized communities (up to a small village). We're not so well adapated to dealing with human parasites in modern society's mega-communities.

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My idea is that we are adapted to the capacity for Super-Rational thinking. What is required to make the Super-Rational work in the Parasite Dilemma is the capacity of people to recognize its superiority and apply it.

PairTheBoard