Evolution of Peace - journal article in BBS

General
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Interesting piece on evolution of propensity for peaceful cooperation in BBS (pretty good journal)

Abstract

Emphasis added.

While some species have affiliative and even cooperative interactions between individuals of different social groups, humans are alone in having durable, positive-sum, interdependent relationships across unrelated social groups. Our capacity to have harmonious relationships that cross group boundaries is an important aspect of our species’ success, allowing for the exchange of ideas, materials, and ultimately enabling cumulative cultural evolution. Knowledge about the conditions required for peaceful intergroup relationships is critical for understanding the success of our species and building a more peaceful world. How do humans create harmonious relationships across group boundaries and when did this capacity emerge in the human lineage? Answering these questions involves considering the costs and benefits of intergroup cooperation and aggression, for oneself, one’s group, and one’s neighbor. Taking a game theoretical perspective provides new insights into the difficulties of removing the threat of war and reveals an ironic logic to peace – the factors that enable peace also facilitate the increased scale and destructiveness of conflict. In what follows, I explore the conditions required for peace, why they are so difficult to achieve, and when we expect peace to have emerged in the human lineage. I argue that intergroup cooperation was an important component of human relationships and a selective force in our species history beginning at least 300 thousand years. But the preconditions for peace only emerged in the past 100 thousand years and likely coexisted with intermittent intergroup violence which would have also been an important and selective force in our species’ history.

Commentary

A big interest for us re [[wiki/Second Renaissance]] is how to get a new planetary scale of human cooperation underpinned by a shared sense of identity.

Hat-tip

Found via recent article of Peter Turchin (in comments section) The Creation of Peace - Cliodynamica by Peter Turchin

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I’m currently half-way through Turchin’s full book Ultrasociety. Worth the effort. It’s useful to set up a debate between authors like Graeber and Wengrow on the one hand, and Pinker or Kurzweil on the other. One side blames civilization for all violence. The other blames lack of civilization for all violence. Of course, at the end of the day, I prefer Turchin (and other authors with similar methods), whose empirical research yields a more nuanced view.

Today I binged deeply on Donella Meadows’s leverage points prior to writing a bit about global conflicts. Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System - The Donella Meadows Project The problem I identified is most of us have precious little leverage on global conflicts. We can be as transparadigmatic as possible on the level of personal understanding, but that on its own does not exactly stop the missiles from flying.

What Turchin can offer us is ways to better navigate conflict in smaller social formations in which we may indeed enjoy some considerable leverage. The basic message of Ultrasociety is that intra-group cooperation leads to positive results in inter-group competition. (To put this another way, play Game B with your teammates to win at Game A in the larger tournament). So to sum up, if we in this forum call be become supportive of one another, it will likely pay dividends in our dealings with others outside the forum.