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The Insidious AI Tragedy of the Commons
Pending…
Bring it, what?
We right here
We’re not goin’ anywhere
We right here
This is ours and we don’t share
We right here
Bring your crew, ’cause we don’t care
We right here— DMX
Yes, for now, AI isn’t going anywhere. It’s right here. It has probably already read this article. So we can pause for a minute and, momentarily, talk about latrines.
A latrine is a better example than a washroom because it is not usually as clean. However, the users can work to preserve whatever level of cleanliness they can uphold. Washrooms, from their name, hardly lack water as much as latrines can. A place that has a latrine is one that doesn’t have a cistern, meaning someone has to fetch water from a collection point and then proceed either with a duster or broom to clean the small room.
Assume the neighbours have agreed to mutually clean after themselves. Anyone who visits the latrine should wash it. But some notice that they don’t need to do much cleaning. After all, they are only going to pee. Another will try to be extra careful when doing number two. No monitoring cameras, and nobody is hiding nearby to observe who cleans and who doesn’t. If you can get away with it…
