http://dentin.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] dentin.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] ehowton 2012-11-04 09:53 pm (UTC)

I have probably posted on this elsewhere, but I've been living by the idea that I'm entirely out for myself. My optimization function is purely selfish.

However, the result of that purely selfish function is what appears to be a morally upstanding, contributing citizen.

The only difference between me and a crack whore thug on the street is timescale. The thug thinks in terms of the next ten minutes, the next day, possibly the next week. I think in terms of 50 years. In my mind, I feel the cold hand of death at my throat, every day - at the age of 39 years old, because I think on decade long timescales.

When you start to average out the results of your decisions over long periods, you run into issues of "by doing this I hinder society, and if society sucks then my life will suck". You have to take into account that having awesome people around you, having resources to be awesome, and having society suck less is better than not.

In short, people are altruistic and cooperative because there's an actual net gain to be had. Selfish behaviour over a long enough time frame can produce cooperation by default. It's kinda neat.

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