A group of people who all agree that life is not a zero-sum game and cooperate effectively based on that premise will be very efficient, productive, and outcompete other groups.

They are also a honeypot begging to be exploited by bad actors for whom life is a zero-sum game. Once a critical mass of those asshats show up, all of the trust that led to the greater efficiency and productivity breaks down.

Greater trust between good actors is efficient but opens the door to free riders. Lower trust is inefficient but handles bad actors. I think basically all of human history is a meandering line around this unstable equilibrium of trust.

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QuercusMax 6 days ago | parent [-]

Basically: assholes ruin things for everyone.

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throwawayoldie 6 days ago | parent [-]

I think you just wrote the epitaph for the human race.

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nehal3m 6 days ago | parent [-]

Maybe we should have written that on the Voyager Golden Record, although anyone capable of picking it up and deciphering it would have probably already avoided the scenario that doomed us.

	▲	throwawayoldie 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		"Third planet of this Class G star dominated by psychotic tool-using apes. Stay away."