From: Thomas McCabe (pphysics141@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Mar 19 2008 - 19:30:11 MDT
> The scenario shows how a friendly little planet could conceivably protect
> itself against a much larger alien invasion. Personally, I think that it
> could be turned into an awesome science fiction story.
>
> It does not work, however, if the smaller is too well known by the larger so
> the smaller *really* needs to infect the larger with the Friendly meme
> before it learns TOO much.
>
> Fortunately, I'm quite sure that ethics/Friendliness is an Omohundro drive.
>
>
Game theory says otherwise. Tit for Tat
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit-for-Tat) is known to be optimal or
near-optimal in most situations, regardless of whether the competitors
are friendly or unfriendly. Being as friendly as possible is not an
optimal strategy, at least if you're looking for maximum gain, because
unfriendly agents will exploit you.
Before you talk about defending a planet from a better-armed alien
invasion, here's a much simpler scenario: You have $1,000 worth of
stuff in your pocket. A robber walks up to you with a gun, and demands
that you hand over the loot. How will your Friendliness theory
convince the robber to leave, without shooting you or stealing your
stuff?
-- - Tom http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/tom
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