Hello everyone,
I’ve really enjoyed this two week journey we’ve been on together. More than a really fun TPP series, this has also unearthed a new personal passion and focus of study. This won’t be last time we visit the topics we’ve covered the last few weeks.
But now it’s your turn!
What didn’t you understand or wasn’t fully explained, what would you like to know more about?
What surprised the most?
What would you add?
What would you correct or clarify?
Let us know!
And in case you didn’t have a chance, here is an overview of the series below. Reminder: Each episode contains an audio version if you’d prefer to listen!
Enjoy friends, and we’ll see you next week!
Chapter 1 - What is Game Theory?
The purpose of Game Theory is to map and predict the behavior or rational agents in either a zero-sum competitive environment or the general behavior in cooperative ones. Any time rational agents must interact with each other to achieve an outcome, strategy has been introduced and Game Theory is there to help us make sense of the situation.
Chapter 2 - The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Even in a zero sum game, cooperation created opportunity.
This is baffling, because it demonstrates a propensity that all living, sentient beings have toward cooperation, as it turns out. It’s like a bias, only genetic.
Chapter 3 - Gamification
Consider the last time you became lost in a video game, scrolling on your feed, or bing-watching your newest Netflix obsession.
Someone created a world using the principles of gamification, leveraged behavioral momentum, and activated one of the player types in you to guide your behavior and maintain your attention.
Chapter 4 - Atomization
The atomization model demands that content creators exploit the base instinct—anger, rage, sadness, confusion, fear—of people online in order to drive traffic, which then translates to pennies for the creators per visit.2
This replaces creativity with click bait and content that is often untrue or exaggerated.
This reduces the dignity of the writer/creator and further commodifies the consumer.
Chapter 5 - The Future of Finance
Thus, in many ways money is a game.
It’s a world with its own set of “rules, mechanics, and principles” that people use to scale, build, interact, and grow.
Chapter 6 - $$$, Ford, Tesla, and Philosophy
Our current game managed centrally has been strained and on the brink of collapse for a few generations now—as we noted yesterday. The visionaries of their times like Ford and Tesla envisioned Bitcoin before they could have imagined the internet, distributed ledger technology, or even a zoom meeting.
But the sentiment was there.
And in 2008 it became a reality—a new game with a fair, predictable, and an incorruptible set of rules, incapable of change or compromise. In every way, Bitcoin is a game.
Chapter 7 - Defi and Humanitarianism
To me, this is the most empathic, human-centric game ever designed. And it’s changing the world. I hear many talk about BTC and it’s background technology in terms of hype or fad, equating it to a get rich quick scheme.
While this might be the approach or appeal for some, beyond that there is a much deeper potential to accelerate justice, human flourishing, compassion, and empathy.
Chapter 8 - War, What is it Good For?
Replacing brutality and violence with PoW and machine competition to solve geopolitical tension. To help us compete, not to each other’s loss in a zero-sum game, but to our mutual flourishing in an abundant, digital, cooperative environment.
Our goal at TPP is to address big problems with empathy and compassion. To scale our personal and collective capacity of these traits for our personal and group benefit.
These values are important because humans are cooperative to their core. And at times, this cooperation can lead to rivalry, competition, and tension. How we respond to those events determines everything from our collective security and safety to the way we treat the planet.
Looking forward to your feedback my friends, have a wonderful weekend,
Matt