Re: virus: You have nothing to lose but your chains!

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Wed, 24 Mar 1999 20:19:43 -0800

Reed wrote:

>I would also point out that if you think of both yourself and the Other
>as criminals and prisoners being asked to "rat out each other" I can
>imagine that one might chose to defect. The metaphor is one which
>doesn't engender much trust.
>
>Can we think of a better metaphor? It there a way of describing the
>so called "prisoner's dillema" which would make cooperation seem
>the best option: a more, dare I say it...global...metaphor?

First, you need to update the modeled population so that it includes a factor for social standing and then use the data from diffusion studies to create a network for lateral transmission of learned strategies.

The research shows that the diffusion of innovations moves through cliches and social networks, often flowing downward from the high-status Early Adopters to the rest of the population. And the research shows that the Early Adopters have certain characteristics in common--higher social standing, better traveled, more cosmopolitan and educated--and that this would need to be reflected in their decision making.

I would have each generation equal an arbitrary time period (a day, for instance) and rather than "ratting each other out", make it a choice between dealing honestly and pleasantly with on another or dis-honestly and anti-socially. I have an idea of the games relational shape in my head, but sense of what the math would possibly look like.

-Prof. Tim