O.G. Rose | 8. The Game Theory on Why Many Conversations Are Bad and Democracy Likely Doomed by O.G. Rose @O.G.Rose.Michelle.and.Daniel | Uploaded May 2024 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Have you noticed that most conversations don’t go well? I’m not talking about “small talk”—I mean conversations, about pressing issues, decisions, and that kind of stuff. Someone disagrees, someone gets angry, someone gets offended, someone accuses everyone else of trying to destroy America—you get the drift. Why does this happen? Why is it so hard to have a good conversation? Well, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there is an incentive to be the first to establish “dominance” in a conversation, and we can do that by disagreeing, getting angry, and the like. In other words, once I’m upset, I have framed others as needing to make me happy again, which is to say that I grant myself “the high ground,” per se. It stinks being stuck on the “low ground” and having to “play defense,” so after this happens to us a few times in conversation, we can start seizing “the dominant strategy” ourselves. And so, Nash Equilibria begin ruining all our conversations and contributing to the collapse of society, which is to suggest Game Theory gives us a way to understand why democracies are failing. This isn’t to say Game Theory provides the only explanation—we’d have to explore economics, for one, to begin sketching out a full picture—but I think it’s at least a useful start.
Wait, hold on: what exactly is a Nash Equilibrium, and what is Game Theory? Well, getting into the details on those topics exceed the scope of this paper, but fortunately the work of Lorenzo Barberis Canonico can get anyone up to speed (as featured in “Neurodiversity Overcomes Rational Impasses and Stops Eugenics” by O.G. Rose). That paper also argues that a “Nash Equilibrium” can be understood as a “Rational Impasse,” which is defined as ‘is a situation in which rationality keeps itself from reaching its overall best outcome.’ In other words, it’s when if everyone acts rationally, the result is suboptimal and/or negative.
“The Game Theory of Conversation,” as will be the focus of this paper, will use the language of “Nash Equilibrium,” and ultimately reiterate the truth that we only escape Nash Equilibria with “nonrational” action, versus “rational” or “irrational” action—but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. For now, we will resume our focus on “conversation structures,” and please note that I am going to refer to conversations as “games” to stick to the “game theory theme,” as I will likewise refer to people involved in the conversation as “players.” I’m also going to use the language of “strategies” to describe ways people go about talking.
Anyway, the first “player” in the “conversation game” to take a “dominant strategy” quickly becomes who everyone else in the conversation must cater to, both in order for the game to continue, and in order for “the dominant player” not to win. If the game ends, the “dominant player” arguably “wins” (at least in his or her own eyes), so the other players must figure out how to make the dominant player “happy again.” Of course, the dominant player decides when he or she is appeased, so the dominant player indeed has all the power. With a single move (“getting upset”), the player who seizes a “dominant strategy” becomes the player who “takes the lead” (according to the metric of “defending, proving, and/or maintaining his/her position, which is the metric most people unfortunately ascribe to); additionally, “the dominant player” also changes “the goal of the game” into “making the dominant player happy,” which is a goal “the dominant player” decides when is met, meaning “the dominant player” becomes both the leader and a referee. How can we lose the game with that kind of position? Not easily...
For the full piece, please visit:
medium.com/p/c04fe80bc45d
Substack:
ogrose.substack.com/p/the-game-theory-on-why-many-conversations
For "The Map Is Indestructible" list:
o-g-rose-writing.medium.com/list/the-map-is-indestructible-242abdb3219c
Have you noticed that most conversations don’t go well? I’m not talking about “small talk”—I mean conversations, about pressing issues, decisions, and that kind of stuff. Someone disagrees, someone gets angry, someone gets offended, someone accuses everyone else of trying to destroy America—you get the drift. Why does this happen? Why is it so hard to have a good conversation? Well, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there is an incentive to be the first to establish “dominance” in a conversation, and we can do that by disagreeing, getting angry, and the like. In other words, once I’m upset, I have framed others as needing to make me happy again, which is to say that I grant myself “the high ground,” per se. It stinks being stuck on the “low ground” and having to “play defense,” so after this happens to us a few times in conversation, we can start seizing “the dominant strategy” ourselves. And so, Nash Equilibria begin ruining all our conversations and contributing to the collapse of society, which is to suggest Game Theory gives us a way to understand why democracies are failing. This isn’t to say Game Theory provides the only explanation—we’d have to explore economics, for one, to begin sketching out a full picture—but I think it’s at least a useful start.
Wait, hold on: what exactly is a Nash Equilibrium, and what is Game Theory? Well, getting into the details on those topics exceed the scope of this paper, but fortunately the work of Lorenzo Barberis Canonico can get anyone up to speed (as featured in “Neurodiversity Overcomes Rational Impasses and Stops Eugenics” by O.G. Rose). That paper also argues that a “Nash Equilibrium” can be understood as a “Rational Impasse,” which is defined as ‘is a situation in which rationality keeps itself from reaching its overall best outcome.’ In other words, it’s when if everyone acts rationally, the result is suboptimal and/or negative.
“The Game Theory of Conversation,” as will be the focus of this paper, will use the language of “Nash Equilibrium,” and ultimately reiterate the truth that we only escape Nash Equilibria with “nonrational” action, versus “rational” or “irrational” action—but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. For now, we will resume our focus on “conversation structures,” and please note that I am going to refer to conversations as “games” to stick to the “game theory theme,” as I will likewise refer to people involved in the conversation as “players.” I’m also going to use the language of “strategies” to describe ways people go about talking.
Anyway, the first “player” in the “conversation game” to take a “dominant strategy” quickly becomes who everyone else in the conversation must cater to, both in order for the game to continue, and in order for “the dominant player” not to win. If the game ends, the “dominant player” arguably “wins” (at least in his or her own eyes), so the other players must figure out how to make the dominant player “happy again.” Of course, the dominant player decides when he or she is appeased, so the dominant player indeed has all the power. With a single move (“getting upset”), the player who seizes a “dominant strategy” becomes the player who “takes the lead” (according to the metric of “defending, proving, and/or maintaining his/her position, which is the metric most people unfortunately ascribe to); additionally, “the dominant player” also changes “the goal of the game” into “making the dominant player happy,” which is a goal “the dominant player” decides when is met, meaning “the dominant player” becomes both the leader and a referee. How can we lose the game with that kind of position? Not easily...
For the full piece, please visit:
medium.com/p/c04fe80bc45d
Substack:
ogrose.substack.com/p/the-game-theory-on-why-many-conversations
For "The Map Is Indestructible" list:
o-g-rose-writing.medium.com/list/the-map-is-indestructible-242abdb3219c
