This pledge vaguely reminds me of the GNU GPL, a license that developers put on their open-source software if they prefer their software, and all its derivatives, doesn’t “eat at tables” (get distributed) within non-open-source software. So it’s trying to spread open-source software as much as possible, which seems like a goal similar to the abolishing all IP law mentioned by @Breck Yunits in a sibling comment.
I wonder how universal and effective this “viral” approach to spreading unconventional norms is.
It’s a good question, and it reminds me of a point from a recent veritasium video, where in networks of prisoners dilemna’s you can get really good results if cooperators (tit-for-tat ish) also have a rule of “cutting contact” with defectors who defect too often. It’s been a while since I watched the video, and I haven’t really thought deeply about it’s implications, and networks of bots playing prisoners dilemna games are very different from human social networks, so take this comment with a nice helping of salt. I’ll edit this comment with the video link if I find it
edit: according to the liberation pledge site, https://www.theliberationpledge.com/, it’s also the strategy used by the campaign to end foot binding in china. Whether that’s actually true, or they made it up, or distorted the reality, or what, I have no idea. They don’t cite sources on it and I haven’t bothered to look it up.
It does seem to be a strategy that depends on you having something others want. In the prisoners dilemna case, your cooperation. In the foot binding case, a daughter or son to marry. In the gpl case, high quality software. In the liberation pledge case, good company (in my experience, I’m not a very social person anyways nor am I the life of the party, so it’s primarily had an impact on my family, who I’m pretty sure eat way more vegan food than they would if I didn’t have such a strict approach).
This pledge vaguely reminds me of the GNU GPL, a license that developers put on their open-source software if they prefer their software, and all its derivatives, doesn’t “eat at tables” (get distributed) within non-open-source software. So it’s trying to spread open-source software as much as possible, which seems like a goal similar to the abolishing all IP law mentioned by @Breck Yunits in a sibling comment.
I wonder how universal and effective this “viral” approach to spreading unconventional norms is.
It’s a good question, and it reminds me of a point from a recent veritasium video, where in networks of prisoners dilemna’s you can get really good results if cooperators (tit-for-tat ish) also have a rule of “cutting contact” with defectors who defect too often. It’s been a while since I watched the video, and I haven’t really thought deeply about it’s implications, and networks of bots playing prisoners dilemna games are very different from human social networks, so take this comment with a nice helping of salt. I’ll edit this comment with the video link if I find it
edit: around 24 minutes in to here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYlon2tvywA
edit: according to the liberation pledge site, https://www.theliberationpledge.com/, it’s also the strategy used by the campaign to end foot binding in china. Whether that’s actually true, or they made it up, or distorted the reality, or what, I have no idea. They don’t cite sources on it and I haven’t bothered to look it up.
It does seem to be a strategy that depends on you having something others want. In the prisoners dilemna case, your cooperation. In the foot binding case, a daughter or son to marry. In the gpl case, high quality software. In the liberation pledge case, good company (in my experience, I’m not a very social person anyways nor am I the life of the party, so it’s primarily had an impact on my family, who I’m pretty sure eat way more vegan food than they would if I didn’t have such a strict approach).