THS-IPA Example: Gerbil Warming

During our last session, Agnis asked for a practical illustration of how to apply THS-IPA game theory to transformation. I wanted to do a toy example, but he was hoping for a real-world scenario. I decide to compromise by doing a toy version of a real-world problem…

The Whos who live in the land of Seuss have a problem. Their economy consists of making Seats and Shoes from the hair of the Gerbulous Gerbil. Recently, some Whos suspect the Gerbil has been losing its hair. The Lorax claims it is because the Gerbil is overheating from being too fat, and thus needs more Exercise. Horton the Elephant doesn’t think the hair loss is real; but if it is, then it must be due to stress, which means the Gerbil needs more Rest.

Their debate is complicated by the fact that the Lorax runs the company that makes running Shoes, while Horton founded the one making Seats…

gerbil.hc

An exercise in computational philosophy.

#!/usr/bin/env hclang
.hc 1.0.0; # Version
. <- .com.drernie.ths.ipa; # Import Module

# Create Simulation

.Seuss Population[.Gerbil, .Horton, .Lorax, 24 .Who];

# Declarations

Seuss.Resource .R_BUCKS .R_HAIR;
Seuss.Value .V_EXERCISE .V_REST;
Who.Value .LOVES_GERBIL .IS_HORTONSY;
Who.Capability .C_SHOE .C_SEAT;

# Games

Who.< .Hortian, .Loroid >;

Hortian.Game { R_BUCKS(V_REST C_SEAT R_HAIR) };
Loroid.Game { R_BUCKS(V_EXERCISE C_SHOE R_HAIR) };

Hortian.Game { Status IS_HORTONSY };
Loroid.Game { Status -IS_HORTONSY };

Hortian.Game { Status C_SEAT };
Loroid.Game { Status LOVES_GERBIL };

Who.Game { Status R_BUCKS };
Horton.Game { Status N(Hortian) };
Lorax.Game { Status N(Loroid) };

# Scenarios

Gerbil.Scenario { R_HAIR(V_EXERCISE).latency 10 };
Gerbil.Scenario { R_HAIR(V_REST).latency 10 };

Episode Notes

Broad-scale transformation requires a world where data, models, and visualizations are:

• Expected
• Open and Accessible (at least to the impacted communities)
• Editable and Shareable (a la GitHub)

This is already a powerful signal that an Instigator cares more about pro-socially sharing truth rather than winning the meta-game of merely gaining status. If we can popularize and democratize this approach, it should allow us to solve many (most?) wicked problems.

Of course, that also implies that the world we are creating will fall apart once that signal becomes so strong that Instigators learn how to use it to cloak their anti-social Intentions…