1/ I listened to @Liv_Boeree on the @lexfridman podcast talking about #Moloch. It inspired me to write a Thread about this phenomenon & why this ancient demon god is responsible for so many problems we face today.
🧵 I hope you enjoy the thread and my thoughts about #Moloch
Who is Moloch?
2/ #Moloch originates from the Canaanite religion and was a demon god who gave power to tribes to win wars but in return, they had to sacrifice their children to Moloch. The essence is "sacrificing something that has value to you in order to gain power / to win the game".
3/ An example of a #Moloch Situation: If a front-row person in a seated concert hall stands up, everyone has to adopt the same short-term strategy to not be worse off. This bad incentive will create a loose-loose situation because everybody has to keep standing from now on.
4/ Lots of people see capitalism as #Moloch but I think the social media (multi-agent competitive game) is far more extreme in this regard: Everyone adapts the short-sighted strategy of click-baiting and begging for attention because the algorithm rewards engagement.
5/ Other examples of #Moloch situations could be the creation of biological weapons, General AI, "elbows out" in careers, etc. It isn't that there is a puppeteer who steers us in that direction.
It is a human phenomenon that is hard to solve from within the game itself.
When I first heard about Moloch
6/ I first heard the word #Moloch in the book "13.5 Leben des Captain Blaubär" from Walter Moers: Moloch is a huge machine ship with slave workers crossing oceans. Its goal was to incorporate new slaves and ships until the whole world is Moloch to keep it running
Is “Win-Win” the solution?
7/ @Liv_Boeree does not have a full solution to the problem but an antidote called "win-win". That creature knows that #Moloch loves competition but hates coordination. We need to find a way to build products where we think about values/incentives first and run sims to validate
Closing Thoughts
8/ I personally believe that a decentralized collaboration can defeat #Moloch but it needs inspiring characters that are altruistic enough to defeat the game and inspire others to do the same. But we don't have enough of them. Can you be one of them?
