How much counterfactually available outcome-value is left on the table by Hansonian instincts?
I.e. you have a community that tries to achieve X, but they don't achieve X as well as they could because of social status drives. How much better could they achieve X if they didn't have those drives (at same level of intelligence)
@niplav this is a really good question that I can't even begin to conceptualize how to estimate the answer.
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Thanks!
Related question: How does it change between sitting alone in your room and doing projects together in person?
@niplav I'd guess: the more of what they're doing is conversational, the more it gets absorbed into status games. The more it is physical, the less.
(In this model, publishing academic papers is conversational.)
If you are building houses or doing work in a lab there's less space to posture. If you're just talking, there's more.