The Evolution of Trust
ncase.meGreat idea and nicely done. Having said that, this is quite depressing. While the creator does give some positive tips at the end re what we can do to change the situation, they're hardly of any help. The problem is that we can never be quite sure what kind of game we find ourselves in at a given point in time. I've met many "genuinely warm-hearted" people who have stopped being approachable cold turkey whenever they found they've received enough of what they were after. Could be a couple of hours or a couple of years. Before that point they were very reciprocating, though
And so I've grown tired of reaching out to people. There simply have been too many let downs. I mean I don't even expect people to return favors. It's just hard to see "friendships" end abruptly after, say, 2 years just because the other person changes his/her set of goals. In other words, you learn that all the times you had fun together you actually never had a friend.
I wonder whether this kind of behavior has become more prevalent in recent years. I'd like to believe that 10 years ago I was better at seeing through people. But these days? It feels like many people have got the pretending of being genuinely nice down to a fine art.
It is always easy to justify non-cooperation. The demo even provides one by showing that partial non-cooperation provide the greatest economic benefit. If the benefit was measured differently, say in terms of character, then the conclusion might be different. Or to put it another way, economic gain may or may not be the best way to decide if cheating is ok.
I mean one of the premises of the simulations is killing off the poor to make room for the rich. Accepting, based on the simulation, that partial non-cooperation strategies are ok means accepting that premise.