Non-Zero Sum
Table of Contents:
Non-Zero Sum—
Zero-Sum Thinking
Non-Zero Sum Thinking
Real Life Games
Aliens have arrived!
Prisoner’s Dilemma
Economics & Goods/Services
Don’t compete, but create!
Similarities far outweigh the differences
“The Non-Zero Sum Character” by Steven Pressfield
Text (3 books)
Audio (4 pieces of content)
Video (5 pieces of content)
Non-Zero Sum—
Abstract: In game theory, a Zero-Sum game is one where correlations are always inverse. So there is always a binary winner and a loser. In a Non-Zero Sum game the correlations are joined. The circumstances can be either Win/Win, or Lose/Lose. The outcomes are linked!
Zero-Sum Thinking
Launching a moral and values revolution is not easy, but it must be done. We are in the grips of the leviathan that is modernity. A web of connections intersect at the crossroads of artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, global warming, media’s acquiescence to playing fast and loose with the truth, your attention/data being sold to the highest bidder, and capitalism’s unquenchable thirst for infinite growth on a finite planet--all under the fallacy that everything is not heavily influenced by inequality between nation-states and global citizens.
Many countries in the world are experiencing tectonic cultural shifts of all types, including in the United States, where a literal clown reality star president takes our definition of a buffoon to new heights with trade war ping pong, the decimation of any resemblance of climate or environmental agencies, tweeting a classified photo from a presidential briefing, replying to questions of rape with a denial of: “she’s not my type,” and many other behaviors. Hong Kong is currently protesting against the behemoth that is the Chinese state. India is doing shit in Kashmir again. Don’t get me started about the Russians messing around above the Arctic Circle. In Brazil, the Amazon is on fire with pro-big business president Jai Bolsonaro making sure it continues, and Venezuelans continue to be in turmoil.
Why do I tell you all this?
Zero-Sum Thinking
We as a global community of homo sapiens continue to wrestle with what author Robert Wright says is: “a growing lethality of hatred & a death spiral of negativity” and has led to a plague of zero-sum thinking. Wikipedia has so graciously let us in on some examples of zero-sum thinking below. (Pay close attention to number 3 when thinking about immigration, number 6 around thoughts about digital sharing, and number 7 on your personal ideological group biases.)
When students in a classroom think they are being graded on a curve when in fact they are being graded based on predetermined standards.[1]
In a negotiation when one negotiator thinks that they can only gain at the expense of the other party (i.e., that mutual gain is not possible).[5]
In the context of social group competition, the belief that more resources for one group (e.g., immigrants) means less for others (e.g., non-immigrants).[6]
In the context of romantic relationships, the idea that loving more than one person at a time means loving each one less.[7]
Jack of all trades, master of none: the idea that having more skills means having less aptitude (also known as compensatory reasoning).[8]
In the copyright infringement debate, the idea that every unauthorized duplication is a lost sale.[9][10][11]
Group membership is sometimes treated as zero-sum, such that stronger membership in one group is seen as weaker membership in another.[12]
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Non-Zero-Sum Thinking
Robert Wright’s 2006 TED talk & book Non-Zero dissect the above trends as growing significantly around the world - even back in 2006 - and the need to recognize the important heuristic of “zon-zero summness.”
Ancient history reveals that the time scale of our species evolution as hunter gatherers in small, close-knit bands is extensively longer than “civilizations” (in any formal sense) have been around. Think of the enormous scale difference of hundreds of thousands of years (or millions if you want to consider “hominids” like Homo Habilis or Homo Erectus) to the couple of thousand years since the earliest cities. With cities came the “new” view and improved moral stance of:
“All people everywhere are human beings and deserve to be treated like humans.”
Whether via trade, commerce, the silk road, or history - priorities of both competition and cooperation trade places as to what is the most influential to each system. But overall, one could argue on the whole that our history is non-zero sum in terms of progress.
Less hatred and less bigotry are needed. Ultimately this need is grounded in cynicism about other people not doing what is best for the collective and solely for the individual. The problem or saving grace is that you can never take the collective out of the individual, or the individual out of the collective. They are forever linked in their correlations.
This takes us back to zero-sum and non-zero sum with their connected correlations within game theory possibilities.
Two easy examples deal with pies and tennis. If your mom bakes a pie and only half of it is left and your siblings, or friends, AND you want to eat a remaining portion of the pie, you are in a zero-sum game with that other person. The correlations are always inversed! If you have a piece, then the other person loses out on that matching specific amount of pie deliciousness. The same goes for you with their piece. There is a winner and a loser. There is only so much pie to go around!
Now to make this a non-zero-sum game, your mom just needs to bake another pie! Then you and your guest can gorge on as much as you want. (The logic being that everyone eventually will throw in the towel after a certain amount of pie has been scoffed down---a limit if you will.) But remember it becomes a zero-sum game when you take the first piece out of the second pie. You will never look at a shareable dessert the same way ever again.
Another easy example of both a zero-sum and non-zero sum game is tennis. You and your opponent are in a zero-sum game. Someone will win, and someone will lose. But if you play doubles, then you and your partner are playing a non-zero-sum game. Your correlations are joined! They are in the same boat as you (either for better or worse).
Other examples of non-zero-sum items: arms control negotiations, trading gossip, the relationship among genes on a genome, and such transactions as buying a car and buying a book. To recap:
Zero-Sum Games - Correlations are always inverse; there is always a winner and a loser.
Non-Zero-Sum Games- Correlations are joined. Win/Win or Lose/Lose situation.
To read the rest of the essay, go to either the Substack or Medium link.
Substack: https://eclecticspacewalk.substack.com/p/eclectic-spacewalk-4-non-zero-sum
Medium: https://medium.com/eclectic-spacewalk/eclectic-spacewalk-4-non-zero-sum-78e4ef0d450