Back in the 20th century, some psychologists came up with a little experiment. Two volunteers would play a card game where they could either cooperate with their opponent and split a pot of money, or betray them and get the whole thing. But if they both double-crossed each other, both got nothing.
Played once or twice, the results of the game were predictable: Both players betrayed the other, and both got nothing.
But when the players were told there was no limit on the number of rounds, and to just keep playing, their behavior changed. Eventually, most players fell into a routine of cooperation, making the same cooperative move every time, and sharing the reward every time. Round after round, until the experiment ended (or the psychologists ran out of money).
Humanity is stuck playing a version of this game. We have been playing one round after another since the beginning of history. We play it as individuals, we play it as groups, we play it as nations. It is fundamentally the same game at every level.
When played rationally, the game is pretty boring. But the temptation is always there to play the game to win big. Out of fear, or greed, or for power, or just because we can. To take it all for ourselves, our family, our tribe, our nation, our religion, our party.
For most of human history, this strategy may have made some sense. There was so little knowledge of what the world was like, and not enough reason to believe you would be around tomorrow to make cooperation worth it. But that isn’t true anymore. There is no “final” round in this game. It goes as long as we want. Which means the rewards are potentially limitless. It also means playing to win big is all the more senseless.
Human history is a story of increasing cooperation. I believe that story continues. Not because I believe in the inherent goodness of humanity (I believe in the inherent humanity of humanity). But because, luckily, our circumstances force us in that direction, in the same way the volunteers in the game eventually figure out that the best way to play the game is to split the pot, round after round.
It is cooperating with each other, not competing against each other (or merely being indifferent), that has brought all of us the best things in life. Not everything, but the best things. The things so great you don’t even notice them. Like not having our survival depend on whether the harvest will be good. Or not getting murdered by bands of thieves in our sleep. Or civilization itself.
(It is cooperation that will dig us out of the climate change mess we find ourselves in. I do not think it is an oversimplification to say that the biggest obstacle to solving the problem of global warming is a lack of cooperation. All of the other ingredients – the technology, the knowledge, the money – are in place. We only lack cooperation.)
Don’t get me wrong: competition is great, too. But competition is meaningless without cooperation. Our ability to cooperate channels competition the way a furnace contains a fire: it gives it purpose by turning its random energy into meaningful outcomes.
Even where competition is most beneficial, in the free market, it is riding a symphony of cooperation. We see businesses at war in the market and see only the two competitors, forgetting all the people on each side cooperating intensely.
It is true that competition is more attractive, sexier, and sometimes more individually rewarding than cooperation. It is also more fun, sometimes. But only in the way a shooting star is more noteworthy than the sun. One zooms across the sky for a moment, drawing a gasp of appreciation. The other shines steadily for billions of years, fueling all life on Earth.
It is time for us to grow up and accept the responsibilities we have to conduct life on Earth in a serious manner. Cooperation is how we have achieved greatness as a species. More cooperation is how we will achieve even more greatness in the future.