Sadly, my favorite Simplicio line was cut from the book. But I think Simplicio plays an important role of raising real objections; often it is the case that someone will propose we “all just” coordinate on a thing. The CCC has a systems dynamics view in which people might be willing to pollute in order to enrich themselves, but harming yourself to harm another is bizarre, whereas Simplicio has a moral worldview where such spite is common (in the form of the wicked) and also morally correct behavior involves working against incentives. Like, I don’t think Cecie could have written No, It’s not The Incentives—It’s you.
Yeah, to be clear, I don’t think everything Simplicio says is obviously wrong, and I think a more interesting (and much longer) version of this dialogue would have tried harder to understand and steelman various Simplicio-models, regardless of whether it ended up siding against Simplicio.
Sadly, my favorite Simplicio line was cut from the book. But I think Simplicio plays an important role of raising real objections; often it is the case that someone will propose we “all just” coordinate on a thing. The CCC has a systems dynamics view in which people might be willing to pollute in order to enrich themselves, but harming yourself to harm another is bizarre, whereas Simplicio has a moral worldview where such spite is common (in the form of the wicked) and also morally correct behavior involves working against incentives. Like, I don’t think Cecie could have written No, It’s not The Incentives—It’s you.
Yeah, to be clear, I don’t think everything Simplicio says is obviously wrong, and I think a more interesting (and much longer) version of this dialogue would have tried harder to understand and steelman various Simplicio-models, regardless of whether it ended up siding against Simplicio.