The problem with words like “better” and “left on the table” is that better globally is not necessarily better for me, and leaving value on the table is not a problem for me if it all comes from your part.
Option A: I get 5 units of utility, you get 5 units of utility.
Option B: I get 6 units of utility, you get 3 units of utility, 1 unit of utility gets burned.
Option A is clearly better for me out of these two.
It seems like there should be an option C: 6.5 units of utility for me, 3.5 units of utility for you. But maybe there isn’t . Maybe it actually costs me 1 unit of utility to keep a gun pointing at your head. And without the gun, you might turn the table and demand 5 units of utility or bust.
In theory, if you were a robot, you could commit to act as if the gun is pointed at your head, even if there is none, and then we could split the money I saved by not having to buy the gun. In practice, humans don’t seem to work that way sufficiently reliably.
The problem with words like “better” and “left on the table” is that better globally is not necessarily better for me, and leaving value on the table is not a problem for me if it all comes from your part.
Option A: I get 5 units of utility, you get 5 units of utility.
Option B: I get 6 units of utility, you get 3 units of utility, 1 unit of utility gets burned.
Option A is clearly better for me out of these two.
It seems like there should be an option C: 6.5 units of utility for me, 3.5 units of utility for you. But maybe there isn’t . Maybe it actually costs me 1 unit of utility to keep a gun pointing at your head. And without the gun, you might turn the table and demand 5 units of utility or bust.
In theory, if you were a robot, you could commit to act as if the gun is pointed at your head, even if there is none, and then we could split the money I saved by not having to buy the gun. In practice, humans don’t seem to work that way sufficiently reliably.