You provided many real-world illustrations of the idea, which are indeed relevant. I did not focus in the post itself on examples or on how the ideas manifest in history or economics, but there are many local examples.
Actually, one particular case that is very close to me as a Ukrainian is the Russo-Ukrainian war. I have been constantly thinking about this case while working on the idea. Ukraine, fortunately, survived, but at a great cost, and it would not have survived at its level of preparedness if Russia had not been so extremely incompetent. Pro-survival agents were largely outcompeted in Ukraine by survival-indifferent agents, and a competent adversary motivated to exterminate Ukraine would have succeeded rather easily. Later, because the war persisted for a long time and provided a tight feedback loop, society reorganized itself around being pro-survival, but that happened only because the initial Russian invasion failed. The pressure from the existential threat was slow enough to allow adjustment, and in a way it was a great stroke of luck that it was slow enough.
You provided many real-world illustrations of the idea, which are indeed relevant. I did not focus in the post itself on examples or on how the ideas manifest in history or economics, but there are many local examples.
Actually, one particular case that is very close to me as a Ukrainian is the Russo-Ukrainian war. I have been constantly thinking about this case while working on the idea. Ukraine, fortunately, survived, but at a great cost, and it would not have survived at its level of preparedness if Russia had not been so extremely incompetent. Pro-survival agents were largely outcompeted in Ukraine by survival-indifferent agents, and a competent adversary motivated to exterminate Ukraine would have succeeded rather easily. Later, because the war persisted for a long time and provided a tight feedback loop, society reorganized itself around being pro-survival, but that happened only because the initial Russian invasion failed. The pressure from the existential threat was slow enough to allow adjustment, and in a way it was a great stroke of luck that it was slow enough.