Curt Doolittle

Theme: Cooperation

  • Paternalism and Classism, But Not Racism

    [I]f you adopt paternalism: that your kin are an extended family, and that you will work with other extended families to cooperate non-parasitically with all other extended families, and that we produce nations not states, then you get this wonderful ability for us to religion, culture, race, class and caste. We struggle with a certain problem: that while small nations are better for the development of community and mutual insurance, large states are materially valuable for the conduct of war and less so for trade bargaining. But once we have nuclear weapons it is very hard to violate borders without committing suicide. So there appears to be no reason for large states other than aggressive warfare. And yes, some territory is objectively better than other territory. And some genes are objectively better than other genes. And we start from different levels of development. But states are as much a barrier to development as they are to improvement precisely because of scale. Scale increases the ability to engage in corruption. With scale we find anonymity. With anonymity we have informational asymmetry. With informational asymmetry we have opportunity for corruption (privatization of commons). So you know, I’m a CLASSIST, in that i recognize the problem of carrying a large and counterproductive underclass, but I am not a RACIST in that I want all groups to transcend the animal, become fully human, and evolve into what we imagine as gods. And its possible. We had it right. Unfortunately we blew it. And now we have to fix it.

  • Eli Harman One of Robert Axelrod’s findings from studying iterated prisoner’s di

    Eli Harman

    One of Robert Axelrod’s findings from studying iterated prisoner’s dilemma competitions (“The Evolution of Cooperation”) is that the standard “tit for tat” strategy can be improved upon by adding an element of forgiveness, to break otherwise insoluable and never-ending patterns of recrimination. Clinging steadfastly to vengeance as an aim, when peace and cooperation are within reach, is an example of the sunk cost fallacy.

    Quite simply, our parents and grandparents could afford a lot of folly that we cannot, now that they have squandered our inheritance on empty signaling.

  • Eli Harman One of Robert Axelrod’s findings from studying iterated prisoner’s di

    Eli Harman

    One of Robert Axelrod’s findings from studying iterated prisoner’s dilemma competitions (“The Evolution of Cooperation”) is that the standard “tit for tat” strategy can be improved upon by adding an element of forgiveness, to break otherwise insoluable and never-ending patterns of recrimination. Clinging steadfastly to vengeance as an aim, when peace and cooperation are within reach, is an example of the sunk cost fallacy.

    Quite simply, our parents and grandparents could afford a lot of folly that we cannot, now that they have squandered our inheritance on empty signaling.

  • The Principle of Exchange Makes Philosophy Much Easier

    [P]olitical Philosophy is a lot easier when you just start from the premise that all goods are hypothetical, all bads are not, and that the only means of accumulating the knowledge to determine good from bad is exchange. This eliminates the fallacy that any of us know what is in fact good for all, other than institutions that allow us to choose any possible good but prohibit us from pursuing any known bad are a de facto good by prohibiting bads. This is contrary to human cognition because we evolved for negotiating cooperation not truth telling. It is contrary to human desire, because we desire consensus. It is contrary to political incentive because it limits political power. We all think we are ‘right’. But the only ‘right’ we can know is trade. Just as the only way we know whether we engaged in production or engaged in waste, consumption, or entertainment, is if others trade for what we create. Information and volition tell us what ‘right and wrong’ do not.

  • The Principle of Exchange Makes Philosophy Much Easier

    [P]olitical Philosophy is a lot easier when you just start from the premise that all goods are hypothetical, all bads are not, and that the only means of accumulating the knowledge to determine good from bad is exchange. This eliminates the fallacy that any of us know what is in fact good for all, other than institutions that allow us to choose any possible good but prohibit us from pursuing any known bad are a de facto good by prohibiting bads. This is contrary to human cognition because we evolved for negotiating cooperation not truth telling. It is contrary to human desire, because we desire consensus. It is contrary to political incentive because it limits political power. We all think we are ‘right’. But the only ‘right’ we can know is trade. Just as the only way we know whether we engaged in production or engaged in waste, consumption, or entertainment, is if others trade for what we create. Information and volition tell us what ‘right and wrong’ do not.

  • Evolution of Various Technologies of Cooperation

    [T]he Technologies of Cooperation 1) Tribal Hunter Gatherer -> Steppe/Desert -> Agrarian -> Urban -> (Slum?) 2) Headman -> Chieftain -> King -> President/Prime Minister -> (Judge?) 3) Memory -> Oral Tradition -> Written -> Printing -> Media -> (Digital Records?) 4) Norm -> Religion -> Law -> Credit -> (Digital Reputation?) 5) Spiritualism-> Mythos-> Religion-> Reason -> Pseudoscience -> Science -> Truth 6) Animism-> Polytheism-> Monotheism-> Reason-> PseudoScientism-> Trade. 7) Property -> Barter -> Money -> Interest and Credit -> Fiat Money -> (Baskets?) 8) Property -> Wealth -> Partnerships -> Banks -> Central Banks -> ( stocks?) 9) Pairing-Off -> Counting -> Recording -> Balanced Accounting -> Financialization -> (?) 10) Tribal -> Serial -> Poly -> Paternal -> Traditional -> Nuclear -> (Individual?)

  • Evolution of Various Technologies of Cooperation

    [T]he Technologies of Cooperation 1) Tribal Hunter Gatherer -> Steppe/Desert -> Agrarian -> Urban -> (Slum?) 2) Headman -> Chieftain -> King -> President/Prime Minister -> (Judge?) 3) Memory -> Oral Tradition -> Written -> Printing -> Media -> (Digital Records?) 4) Norm -> Religion -> Law -> Credit -> (Digital Reputation?) 5) Spiritualism-> Mythos-> Religion-> Reason -> Pseudoscience -> Science -> Truth 6) Animism-> Polytheism-> Monotheism-> Reason-> PseudoScientism-> Trade. 7) Property -> Barter -> Money -> Interest and Credit -> Fiat Money -> (Baskets?) 8) Property -> Wealth -> Partnerships -> Banks -> Central Banks -> ( stocks?) 9) Pairing-Off -> Counting -> Recording -> Balanced Accounting -> Financialization -> (?) 10) Tribal -> Serial -> Poly -> Paternal -> Traditional -> Nuclear -> (Individual?)

  • EVOLUTION OF OUR VARIOUS TECHNOLOGIES OF COOPERATION (Q: Can You Think of a Name

    EVOLUTION OF OUR VARIOUS TECHNOLOGIES OF COOPERATION

    (Q: Can You Think of a Name for Each Axis?)

    1) Tribal Hunter Gatherer -> Steppe/Desert -> Agrarian -> Urban -> (Slum?)

    2) Headman -> Chieftain -> King -> President/Prime Minister -> (Judge?)

    3) Memory -> Oral Tradition -> Written -> Printing -> Media -> (Digital Records?)

    4) Norm -> Religion -> Law -> Credit -> (Digital Reputation?)

    5) Spiritualism-> Mythos-> Religion-> Reason -> Pseudoscience -> Science -> Truth

    6) Animism-> Polytheism-> Monotheism-> Reason-> PseudoScientism-> Trade.

    7) Property -> Barter -> Money -> Interest and Credit -> Fiat Money -> (Baskets?)

    8) Property -> Wealth -> Partnerships -> Banks -> Central Banks -> ( stocks?)

    9) Pairing-Off -> Counting -> Recording -> Balanced Accounting -> Financialization -> (?)

    10) Tribal -> Serial -> Poly -> Paternal -> Traditional -> Nuclear -> (Individual?)

    Source date (UTC): 2015-12-23 03:29:00 UTC

  • PATERNALISM AND CLASSISM BUT NOT RACISM If you adopt paternalism: that your kin

    PATERNALISM AND CLASSISM BUT NOT RACISM

    If you adopt paternalism: that your kin are an extended family, and that you will work with other extended families to cooperate non-parasitically with all other extended families, and that we produce nations not states, then you get this wonderful ability for us to religion, culture, race, class and caste.

    We struggle with a certain problem: that while small nations are better for the development of community and mutual insurance, large states are materially valuable for the conduct of war and less so for trade bargaining. But once we have nuclear weapons it is very hard to violate borders without committing suicide. So there appears to be no reason for large states other than aggressive warfare.

    And yes, some territory is objectively better than other territory. And some genes are objectively better than other genes. And we start from different levels of development.

    But states are as much a barrier to development as they are to improvement precisely because of scale. Scale increases the ability to engage in corruption. With scale we find anonymity. With anonymity we have informational asymmetry. With informational asymmetry we have opportunity for corruption (privatization of commons).

    So you know, I’m a CLASSIST, in that i recognize the problem of carrying a large and counterproductive underclass, but I am not a RACIST in that I want all groups to transcend the animal, become fully human, and evolve into what we imagine as gods.

    And its possible. We had it right. Unfortunately we blew it. And now we have to fix it.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-12-22 04:17:00 UTC

  • THE SILVER RULE IS THE ORIGIN OF COOPERATION THEFT The only ‘shame’ is theft. Th

    THE SILVER RULE IS THE ORIGIN OF COOPERATION

    THEFT

    The only ‘shame’ is theft. The only oath, not to lie, cheat, steal or impose harm. The summary of this ethic is: “Do not unto others as you would not want done unto you.” The anglo saxons were right and the Christians wrong.

    MORALITY (RULE OF COOPERATION)

    The silver rule is necessary for cooperation. The golden rule buys options on future cooperation – but encourages parasitism.

    ACQUIRE

    We act upon that which we have acquired without imposition of costs upon that which others have acquired by doing the same.

    COOPERATE

    We act in concert to voluntarily produce common goods and services.

    WARRANTY

    We warranty the truthfulness of our speech by due diligence in the cleansing of error, bias, imagination, wishful thinking, and deceit from our speech.

    INSURE

    We insure one another against the imposition of costs by collective suppression of free riding by collective prosecution of those who impose costs upon others.

    INVEST

    We invest in the construction of commons for the production of returns, and we deny one another the ability to impose costs upon them.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine

    Source date (UTC): 2015-12-20 06:04:00 UTC