[chubot]

That's a good point, but shouldn't we have learned from history?

I don't think "we don't really have a choice" is true. Societies DO learn from their mistakes, albeit slowly. "Culture" exists for a reason -- it's how groups of people change their behavior.

For example, I think the memory of World War II absolutely did make decision makers behave differently. Nobody wants total war again -- they know how bad it is. We learned from our mistakes. (This doesn't stop stronger countries from picking on weak ones, but that's not total war.)

As an aside, I do think there is a form of "group selection" that happens in nature. Societies that are unable to collectively change their behavior -- learning big lessons on long time scales -- don't survive. "Sapiens" is largely about these "mass delusions" and I think he's onto something (although many would argue its unscientific, and many have argued against group selection as a mechanism of evolution).

In the past we had mass delusion to start religious wars, but that same mechanism can perhaps be used to put value on measured growth rather than winner-take-all outcomes.