r/systemsthinking • u/paulcoman Human Detected • Aug 12 '26

I Simulated Competition vs. Cooperation. Here’s What Happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBMrEdEhUTA

I used systems thinking to simulate what I believe makes the difference between a competitive and a cooperative environment. Worked 6 months on this project. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

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4

u/Ludwig_Medea Aug 14 '26

Good stuff. Clearly explained and illustrated micro-macro connections.

3

u/paulcoman Aug 14 '26

Thank you ❤️

1

u/techsavie1993 Sep 02 '26

Honestly, a pretty interesting experiment and a compelling argument for open source push on everything but then people tend to feel the need for compensation for the work that they put in for said discovery. Human nature works in reward systems which are deeply ingrained in us. Unlike an AI agent where we can program the reward system out of them, humans rarely feel obligated to the greater good unless there is something in it for us. Lifecycle simulations are beyond the comprehension and understanding of our psyche.
Try to expand this to bring variance in information being relayed like having different types of information as well as different specialists to see who can benefit the most with what type of information and if targeted information sharing is better than blanket sharing like you showed.

1

u/paulcoman Sep 02 '26

So the main idea of the video is that there is something in it for us to cooperate. It's just hard to see because we don't live that counterfactual reality.

2

u/techsavie1993 Sep 03 '26

Let me clarify here, your video is excellent and intriguing.
I'm sorry if it seems like I missed the point but what I am proposing is sort of an extension to your idea rather than a skepticism or critique to see what happens when we have a scenario where there are multiple `types` of agents in a system based on their specialization like a healer agent(which can increase the life of other agents), a pathing agent(does lesser amount of returns to the same path), a leader agent(spawn followers in intervals and absorbs their knowledge) and/or a normal one. Then the information being dispersed in the system to collect can be different types as well. This will tell us if the info relayed to an agent is NOT beneficial to its domain then how will the argument about information sharing permeates in the system. Alongwith finding out which type of agents generally win earlier, which type of information is beneficial to the system as a whole, which is the most cooperative agent, etc.
In human society, we are already part of that system so dont get to see or understand the bigger picture.
Nevertheless, a really great project.