The thoughtful post. Maybe.

The thoughtful post. Maybe.

To simplify, we are fires.

To simplify a little less, we are moving fires that need fiber.

I like to think that I have free will. That my actions are unbound to the economic and political forces around me. That I can do what I want. That I am free.

In a meaningful metaphysical sense, I've known that was bogus since phil 101. Still, I like to think it, so I wind up in a modern Humeian sort of compatibilism. Thousands of hours of philosophy, hundreds of pages written, a thesis defended and that's what I've got.

Anyway.

Nothing has quite struck home the degree to which free will is metaphysically unsound as this particular incentive structure.

For years, I've wanted to lose weight. And it has seemed impossible. I've weighed myself nearly every morning, yet my weight continued to climb. And I sure knew why -- I eat too much, don't exercise much, and drink.

I've wanted to lose weight for all the reasons: to not die, to not get diabetes, to be prettier. To not be a burden to those I love. To consume less.

But, wanting was never enough. I had insufficient control over my own actions. I'd eat a slice of pizza, and then the whole pie. I'd sit down at a computer and spend the whole day there. I'd drink a beer and then the six pack.

Enter The Incentive Structure. Also known as The Bet. I'd heard about this before. I'd even tried it before and failed. This time was different. It worked, and it worked surprisingly well.

The first person experience of this bet was like nothing else. Excess food and sloth become tinged with motivational guilt. I couldn't eat a whole pizza because then they would win. I couldn't drink a six pack because they would win. I couldn't avoid running because they would win.

This externalized the harm; I wasn't just potentially harming myself from sloth, overindulgence, and gluttony. I would be making it easier for people with wrong beliefs to do harm in the world. Can't let that happen! Or, rather, if I did, I would be morally blameworthy.

Here's what I wonder: What other activities and habits of ours are malleable with different incentives? What habits do we have that are formed from invisible societal incentives? How much hacking can we do through incentives?

I think the answers will very greatly from person to person, and from time to time. I may have to start reading behavioral economics, or seeing if my old empirical philosophy lab has published anything in the arena.

My hypothesis, from which I'll over time generate a bunch of hypotheses and test them, is that a tremendous number of objectives become possible with an appropriately aligned incentive.

Figuring out what all that means is going to take work.