Is technology falling apart?

[Ahanu]

I find the above information fascinating.

Assume the information I posted above is correct.

My interpretation is this.

Perhaps technology-blessed nations have higher suicide rates due to increased non-zero-sum games, which technology opened up. People in Japan work stressful hours for their family and country. Self-interests are intertwined more in Japan than in undeveloped countries, like Colombia and El Salvador, where more zero-sum games are played, and so there is more pressure to perform in Japan, to succeed, to not disappoint your family. Therefore, the murder rate is higher in technology-unblessed nations, where self-interests are much more loosely based due to lack of technological achievement and not as tightly knit together as Japan's population.

That is how I'm currently reading it.

 

[Taoist]

I maybe being a bit dense here, but i feel the ambiguity of the first post has left me slightly confused on what zero-sum games actually are...would anyone be so kind as to explain a bit more?

 

[Ahanu]

would anyone be so kind as to explain a bit more?

Here is a picture of a zero-sum game:

It is a win-lose game: you either win or lose.

New technologies lead to less zero-sum games.

New technologies lead to more non-zero-sum games, in which players cooperate for a common goal. Win-win or lose-lose.

Here is a video of Robert Wright on the idea of nonzero and how this game theory explains the growth in complexity throughout history:

Robert Wright on optimism | Video on TED.com