Spring Conference: Playing The Nonzero-Sum Game March 18, 2002
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020318S0003
Technology can empower disaffected groups in a way that could create a perilous situation unless nations reach out to people with grievances, author Robert Wright says. By Jennifer Zaino
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.--Technological advances have led to faster and more effective collaboration among disaffected groups and could create a perilous situation for the world unless society learns to play the nonzero-sum game. That was the message delivered by Robert Wright, author of Nonzero: The Logic Of Human Destiny And The Moral Animal, during his opening keynote speech Monday at the InformationWeek Spring Conference, Collaborative Business: The Big Picture. "Technology is going to empower people with intense grievances," Wright said. Indeed, it already has, but the upcoming broadband revolution will increase the danger as terrorist leaders, who are finding it easier to obtain weapons of mass destruction, also gain the ability to stream videos of themselves and their messages of hate over the Internet.
Wright explained how technology and globalization have fostered the spread of the nonzero-sum game, a game theory term that means that the fates of both parties in a relationship are positively correlated (i.e., when a merchant has an item to sell that a customer wants to buy, one party is content to purchase the item and the other party is content to take the money). In a zero-sum game, however, one party wins at the expense of the other.
"When people agree to collaborate, they perceive a nonzero-sum game in some way," he said, adding that "the whole story of human history is a story of collaboration." As technological innovations encourage the development of nonzero-sum games on a larger scale, the social structure evolves to handle that environment. Globalization raises the nonzero-sum stakes: While war encouraged ancient people to band together to develop the technology and society that would help them defeat their enemies, economic organization on a global level means that zero-sum games between nations no longer make sense. When nations' economies are so tightly integrated with each other, both suffer during war, and both profit during peace. "It's hard to do business with people while slaughtering them," Wright said. And such relationships also expand humanity's moral compass, as one must concede the humanity of those with which one has formed relationships.
The threat of terrorism requires nations to take the nonzero-sum game to the next level, Wright said. In a world in which terrorists can coordinate a hijacking plan via cell phones, it's imperative that nations reach out to the people in the street who are terribly unhappy, because the more unhappy they grow, the more danger they present to the world. Said Wright: "We won't just be tolerant but we'll take an active role in the welfare of others."
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [game theory always struck me as a bit of a crock,
> but I never knew
> quite why - here's one reason - the original paper
> is at
> <http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jg2n/ten&ten.pdf>.]
>
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 Buffalo Activist Network http://www.buffaloactivist.net
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