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"would be, above all, empathetic. Concerned about the well being of their fellow humans."

I'm tired of this line. We are animals first and foremost. Complicated animals, but animals nonetheless. We will never consistently be this. The best of us will try but most of us will animalistically react to the incentives in front of us in selfish ways.

We are better of thinking of systems and the incentives they create than hopelessly waiting for us to become not animals. Aligning good goals with personal profit is the name of the game.



Except our superior ability to collaborate is arguably our strongest asset.


Of course! Nothing I said precludes this. Lots of collaboration is used for selfish means.


Is collaboration at its most useful/powerful when it's done selfishly?




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