Re: Truth machines

Robin Hanson (hanson@econ.berkeley.edu)
Fri, 18 Dec 1998 10:38:25 -0800

Damien Sullivan wrote:
>A world where everyone was incapable of lying would probably outcompete our
>own, if it had some immune function so defectors couldn't expoit the system.
>For one thing the market would run much more smoothly, I'd think.

If the world only changed so that each lie now told is replaced with the truth, well sure things get better. But that's a pretty shallow social analysis. One should ask how people would adjust to being unable to tell (conscious intentional) lies, and then see if things are still better. It's not so clear to me.

Robin Hanson

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