Game Theory

 

Ayn Rand has become such a huge influence on our culture that her belief in selfishness has not only been sanitized into ‘self interest’ but also has entered the mainstream discussion as biological fact. Most recently, an article in the December 1st issue of Newsweek, by Jeneen Interlandi, ‘The Science of Working Together’, stated that “Unlike ants and bees, humans aren’t hardwired for cooperation.”

True, we are not ants or bees, or not even like any other species on earth. But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t hard wired for cooperation. If anything, it is our interest in things other than ourselves that makes us different. We care about what happens to other people and species. Our non-self interest is such a large part of what we are that it would be reasonable to say that cooperation was essential to our evolution.

But the article’s bigger point concerns self-interest as it relates to Game Theory. The author accepts the theory as truth bolstered with words like ‘mathematical study’ and ‘strategic’ in spite of a basic fact that proves the theory is nonsense. People who put self interest first are anomalies, usually pathological, and we all know it.

Why does the fire fighter run into the burning house to save a dog? Why do strangers stop to help a lost child? Why do we send food to people on the other side of the world? Clearly, self-interest is not our first concern.

We are not like ants or bees. Insects are not empathic. They see nothing bigger than their own colony. They have no inner compass to create and define good and bad.

Humans are much different. Self-image depends on how we treat other people, and also on symbolic behaviors that contribute to the greater good. We feel pride at helping, shame at greed.

Courage, protectiveness, generosity, empathy are driving forces behind our everyday behavior.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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