Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Bakkot 4341 days ago
Yeah, sure, but now suppose that you're going to decide the rule that everyone's car will follow. Are you still going to choose what amounts to defecting in the prisoner's dilemma?

Put it another way: this is one of those very rare occasion where collective cooperation (a la prisoner's dilemma) is possible. Shouldn't that... be the thing we want?

1 comments

I would not be deciding that rule for everyone's car. I would provide a checkbox (or what ever way there would be to customize a car's options). I'm a pretty big believer in user settings. I wish more software gave users more options on some of the stuff some random developer thought was best.
The thing is, in the absence of collective action people choose to defect in prisoner's dilemmas. Giving people the option results in everyone defecting. Having it be preset results in everyone cooperating. Everyone cooperating is a better outcome for everyone.