The Good News about The Bad News Gospel

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The Good NewsaboutThe Bad News Gospel
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The BAD News Gospel

• Humans are fallen, depraved and incapable of
  doing the right thing
• Human Nature is intrinsically evil.
• I am not responsible
• God is to blame, not I

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The Good News

• Its more complicated than that
• You are responsiblewhich means you can change
  things.
• The good news is that despite short-term
  incentives to cheat it is our human nature that
  allows us to reason and to make better choices
  for the long-term.

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If all you are getting is the Bad News

• think about what human nature really is.
• act in accordance with the design.
• Live with the grain.

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What is Human Nature?

• Humans have the ability to graspand act
  uponabstract concepts.
• Humans have the ability to envision the future.
• Humans have the ability to understand that other
  humans are their equals.
• Humans have the ability to build a world that
  works better for all of us.
• Children reach the age of reason.

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All People are Created Equal

• If you have the right to do something to somebody
  else,
• They have the same right to do the same thing to
  you.
• Any rights that cant be universalized are not
  rights
• Your rights to swing your arm end at the other
  persons nose.

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Partnership
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What is winning?

• Does winning mean defeating your opponent?

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The Pragmatic Partnership Ethic

• Whether or not you think of this as an ethical
  issue
• The fundamental question is
• Is this a one-time opportunity to grab and runOr
  is this a long-term relationship?
• Future benefits outweigh short term gains from
  cheating.
• Examples of the cooperative stance in games
• The quality premium in marketing-a fair profit
• Buy quality and youll only cry once
• TQM
• Supply Chain Management The extended
  enterprise.
• There is never a last round
• Even if this is your last contact with this
  partner, Your approach will earn you a long-term
  reputation that will carry over to business with
  others.
• The Radar OReilly Phenomenon.
• Your spouse and your children

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None of this is new

• This Pragmatic Partnership Ethic can be described
  as enlightened self-interest.
• Rational Selfishness is a virtue
• The Pragmatic Partnership Ethic has a common
  name.

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But

• Does that mean you should always turn the other
  cheek and let unscrupulous people run over you?

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There is a problem with this

• 1.There are jerks everywhere (about 5).
• 2.Jerks change the game from win-win to
  lose-lose.
• 3. If you dont protect yourself, you will get
  hurt and jerks will be empowered to hurt others.
• 4. But if you treat everyone as jerks, it will
  wreck the game and everyone will lose.

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The Evolution of Cooperation (Robert
Axelrod, 1985)

• Simulation tournament of strategies for the
  Iterated Prisoners Dilemma (IPD).
• The simplest strategy, Tit-for-tat (TFT) was most
  consistently the winner.
• Tit-for-tat start with cooperation, then echo
  the opponents move on the last round.
• Properties
• Nice, never the first to defect
• Provocable, immediately, on one defection
• Forgiving, can return to cooperation after
  defection.
• Simple and Transparent, the opponent knows what
  will happen.

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Tit-for-tat

• TFT wins but not by defeating opponents, but by
  doing better with other TFT players.
• By definition, TFT can, at best, have a tie score
  in a series with a single opponent.
• No opponent is ever defeated.
• But TFT accumulates higher total scores by
  finding and cooperating with cooperative players,
  while avoiding being taken advantage of by the
  defectors.
• TFT demands only equity, doing well by promoting
  mutual interest rather than exploiting weakness.

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• What is winning?
• Winning isnt beating your opponent.
• Winning is achieved by helping your opponent to
  win too.

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Evolutionary gamesand growth of a just
civilization

• Successful strategies prosper and grow
• Less successful strategies diminish
• A consistent defection (meanies) culture can
  only be stable if nice players are isolated
  from each other.
• A nice culture is stable and can resist
  invasion by meanies only if the TFT rule is
  followed
• avoid exploitation Be provocable by the first
  defection of the other player.
• TFT also helps others by making it harder for
  exploitative strategies to survive.
• Axelrods Conclusion
• Reciprocity is a better foundation for morality
  than is unconditional cooperation.

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Justice protects the weak and maintains
civilization

• It is not moral to tolerate the bully.

If you do not visit bad neighborhoods,
then bad neighborhoods will visit you.
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The Tit-for-Tat Rule in Games(Simulation
studies indicate Tit-for-tat strategy gives the
best expected results when dealing with the 5
who are jerks)

• 1. Treat everyone as if they belong to the other
  95 (suffer occasional vulnerability as a price
  for pursuing the best long-run average result).
• 2. If someone acts like a jerk, thump them.
• 3. If they continue to be jerks, thump them
  harder.
• Accept conversions, but,
• 4. Don't let a few jerks wreck the game for
  everyone else.
• 5. Arrange future endeavors to exclude jerks.