Evolutionarily speaking: If cooperation did not give advantages, why the fuck did we become a social species? Going for anti-cooperative strategies only ever makes sense in zero-sum games and practically nothing in life is.
In game theory cooperation does give advantages.
Both co-op: +1/+1
Both defect: 0/0
Defect/co-op: +3/0
That’s just one interaction. When you expand the experiment, predictability becomes a positive trait and risk is avoided. So by more often choosing cooperation, you become more predictable, avoid the risk of not gaining any points through mutual defection, and more people are likely to interact with you. More interactions=higher potential for points. When you adjust the rules of the game to not define a set number of interactions with each player and you can choose the frequency of interactions with bad reputation players, cooperating is naturally selected for. Conversely, as the pool gets collectively nicer, defection will net more benefits and the pendulum will start to slowly swing the other way.
When you adjust the rules of the game to not define a set number of interactions with each player
Then being nasty wins out, no matter the length of the game as long as it’s known (or at least an upper bound is known) But that’s not the case in practice so it’s irrelevant which is why I specified (yes I mentioned it) infinite or unknown amount of iterations.
That mark. That thing we consider good. The innate sense, what pretty much everyone agrees on. It is there because our ancestors were successful because all that game theory stuff happens to apply. If it didn’t, then we would consider defecting good, not, to sum it up neatly, “never start a fight but always end it”.
In game theory cooperation does give advantages.
Both co-op: +1/+1 Both defect: 0/0 Defect/co-op: +3/0
That’s just one interaction. When you expand the experiment, predictability becomes a positive trait and risk is avoided. So by more often choosing cooperation, you become more predictable, avoid the risk of not gaining any points through mutual defection, and more people are likely to interact with you. More interactions=higher potential for points. When you adjust the rules of the game to not define a set number of interactions with each player and you can choose the frequency of interactions with bad reputation players, cooperating is naturally selected for. Conversely, as the pool gets collectively nicer, defection will net more benefits and the pendulum will start to slowly swing the other way.
Then being nasty wins out, no matter the length of the game as long as it’s known (or at least an upper bound is known) But that’s not the case in practice so it’s irrelevant which is why I specified (yes I mentioned it) infinite or unknown amount of iterations.
That mark. That thing we consider good. The innate sense, what pretty much everyone agrees on. It is there because our ancestors were successful because all that game theory stuff happens to apply. If it didn’t, then we would consider defecting good, not, to sum it up neatly, “never start a fight but always end it”.