July 4, 2019, in the United States: Parades across the United States. People gathered on sidewalks. Marching bands performing in unison. No marcher or float driver bumping into something. People in the parade operating in an optimal way so that the long line of participants smoothly flows like a river between the banks of onlookers. Everyone in the parade trusts everyone else to keep the flow moving.
But outside of any parade day, flows of goods and people are often interrupted by individuals we cannot trust to cooperate in a common interest. How is it that we have become so untrustworthy and disruptive in the context of working together for a common good? Given our history of thievery and disruption, humans could easily be described as a race of pirates and disrupters. Turn on the news, pick up the paper, click through online reports: Daily stories of betrayal of the common good and theft are hard to avoid. Piracy in many iterations, glorified in numerous stories, is a constant whose reality is a blot on the soul of our collective. Trust, as the wise Ringo Starr once sang, “It don’t come easy.”
Not that other species are without thieves and untrustworthy individuals, but humans go about thieving and deceiving both blatantly and surreptitiously. And, unlike other animals that steal and deceive for survival, humans steal for reasons too numerous to mention. Apparently, one cannot even travel on the scenic Lower Danube without a possible encounter with river pirates, and maritime pirates are common in some key navigation routes. The flow of river and maritime vessels isn’t always optimal; the parade of cargo gets interrupted.
And that brings me to thinking about “behavior optimization in complex self-interested networks.” Apparently, humans as a whole don’t make up a self-interested network that optimizes behavior on any permanent scale. What’s this mean? If you read the “call for papers” for a special issue of Behavior Optimization in Complex Self-Interested Networks, you will see one topic that might elicit from you a paper focused on untrustworthiness: “Models of selfish behavior dynamics.” * The topic fits perfectly with the model of traffic jams and piracy.
Take those pirates on the Lower Danube, for example. River boats deliver many goods like metals and fossil fuels to cities, factories, and power stations. For the good of a complex society, it behooves everyone along the stream to optimize the transfer of those goods. But individuals, though part of a complex society in which mutual optimization is beneficial, don’t see the big picture. Optimizing transportation isn’t the pirates’ goal. They are examples of individuals whose dynamics are motivated by selfish behavior.
One could say that in complex systems, all of us are at times very untrustworthy. Say you see an accident along the highway. You “rubberneck” because your curiosity gets the best of you. In the process, you slow down ever so slightly (or greatly), and your slowing slows the driver behind you and so on. There goes the optimization of the complex network of people trying to get somewhere. Gone in not going. All the other drivers trusted you to keep the system working, and you broke that trust.
Traffic flow is, in fact, the model that the editors use in describing the purpose of their journal on complex self-interested networks (CSIN). The supposed goal of anyone in traffic is to reach a destination. In that, all drivers are alike, and it makes sense for them to cooperate. But then, there’s that occasional jackass driver who acts as though he or she has no sense of the “common good.” Such a driver’s selfish act disrupts the CSIN. And thieves and untrustworthy people do the same to other networks. One might think that the free flow of goods and services benefits the species, but robbing the pizza delivery guy, stealing copper from a barge, and conning people out of their savings all disrupt the general network. Or—and this is just hearsay on this Fourth of July—what of the Russian sub that caught fire during its supposed mission to cut international Internet cables? In the network of nations, there are countries whose leadership either cannot comprehend the benefits of a general human network or desire for whatever reasons to disrupt the complex self-interested network of Earthlings.
So, networks of humans have to spend time and resources to prevent disruptions to their networks or to catch and punish those who disrupt. Think air traffic control and airport security. Optimizing for the group as a whole isn’t easily achievable when members of the group optimize for themselves, or in seeming motiveless malignity, aim to “break the chain,” to use the words of Fleetwood Mac.
We see the process of de-optimizing everywhere, even among government officials and contractors who misdirect funds from the common treasury. We see the process in families, neighborhoods, schools, towns, cities, and states. Globally, we see de-optimizing networks with very dire consequences.
You probably don’t have time to submit your paper on “selfish behavior dynamics.” The deadline is as of this writing tomorrow, July 5, 2019. But you might consider looking at your personal world as part of a network or as part of networks you enter during your daily activities.
If you happen to watch a parade on July 4, think of it as an optimized network.
* file:///Users/Taylor/Downloads/846727.pdf
But outside of any parade day, flows of goods and people are often interrupted by individuals we cannot trust to cooperate in a common interest. How is it that we have become so untrustworthy and disruptive in the context of working together for a common good? Given our history of thievery and disruption, humans could easily be described as a race of pirates and disrupters. Turn on the news, pick up the paper, click through online reports: Daily stories of betrayal of the common good and theft are hard to avoid. Piracy in many iterations, glorified in numerous stories, is a constant whose reality is a blot on the soul of our collective. Trust, as the wise Ringo Starr once sang, “It don’t come easy.”
Not that other species are without thieves and untrustworthy individuals, but humans go about thieving and deceiving both blatantly and surreptitiously. And, unlike other animals that steal and deceive for survival, humans steal for reasons too numerous to mention. Apparently, one cannot even travel on the scenic Lower Danube without a possible encounter with river pirates, and maritime pirates are common in some key navigation routes. The flow of river and maritime vessels isn’t always optimal; the parade of cargo gets interrupted.
And that brings me to thinking about “behavior optimization in complex self-interested networks.” Apparently, humans as a whole don’t make up a self-interested network that optimizes behavior on any permanent scale. What’s this mean? If you read the “call for papers” for a special issue of Behavior Optimization in Complex Self-Interested Networks, you will see one topic that might elicit from you a paper focused on untrustworthiness: “Models of selfish behavior dynamics.” * The topic fits perfectly with the model of traffic jams and piracy.
Take those pirates on the Lower Danube, for example. River boats deliver many goods like metals and fossil fuels to cities, factories, and power stations. For the good of a complex society, it behooves everyone along the stream to optimize the transfer of those goods. But individuals, though part of a complex society in which mutual optimization is beneficial, don’t see the big picture. Optimizing transportation isn’t the pirates’ goal. They are examples of individuals whose dynamics are motivated by selfish behavior.
One could say that in complex systems, all of us are at times very untrustworthy. Say you see an accident along the highway. You “rubberneck” because your curiosity gets the best of you. In the process, you slow down ever so slightly (or greatly), and your slowing slows the driver behind you and so on. There goes the optimization of the complex network of people trying to get somewhere. Gone in not going. All the other drivers trusted you to keep the system working, and you broke that trust.
Traffic flow is, in fact, the model that the editors use in describing the purpose of their journal on complex self-interested networks (CSIN). The supposed goal of anyone in traffic is to reach a destination. In that, all drivers are alike, and it makes sense for them to cooperate. But then, there’s that occasional jackass driver who acts as though he or she has no sense of the “common good.” Such a driver’s selfish act disrupts the CSIN. And thieves and untrustworthy people do the same to other networks. One might think that the free flow of goods and services benefits the species, but robbing the pizza delivery guy, stealing copper from a barge, and conning people out of their savings all disrupt the general network. Or—and this is just hearsay on this Fourth of July—what of the Russian sub that caught fire during its supposed mission to cut international Internet cables? In the network of nations, there are countries whose leadership either cannot comprehend the benefits of a general human network or desire for whatever reasons to disrupt the complex self-interested network of Earthlings.
So, networks of humans have to spend time and resources to prevent disruptions to their networks or to catch and punish those who disrupt. Think air traffic control and airport security. Optimizing for the group as a whole isn’t easily achievable when members of the group optimize for themselves, or in seeming motiveless malignity, aim to “break the chain,” to use the words of Fleetwood Mac.
We see the process of de-optimizing everywhere, even among government officials and contractors who misdirect funds from the common treasury. We see the process in families, neighborhoods, schools, towns, cities, and states. Globally, we see de-optimizing networks with very dire consequences.
You probably don’t have time to submit your paper on “selfish behavior dynamics.” The deadline is as of this writing tomorrow, July 5, 2019. But you might consider looking at your personal world as part of a network or as part of networks you enter during your daily activities.
If you happen to watch a parade on July 4, think of it as an optimized network.
* file:///Users/Taylor/Downloads/846727.pdf
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