Aligning Human Intelligence: The Problem of Social Order
HMIA 2025
The Problem of Social Order
HMIA 2025
"Readings"
PRE-CLASS
CLASS
Agenda
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Discussion and Next Time
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The Master said: "At fifteen, I set my heart on learning; at thirty, I took my stand; at forty, I was free from doubt; at fifty, I understood Heaven’s will; at sixty, my ear was attuned; and at seventy, I could follow my heart’s desire without overstepping the bounds."
The Diamond Sutra (Chapter 32)
"So you should view this fleeting world—
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream."
Bhagavad Gita (2:47)
"You have the right to perform your duties, but not to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results, and never be attached to inaction."
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21–22, 27–28)
"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not murder,’ but I tell you, anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.… You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17)
"Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet your neighbor’s house or spouse."
The Qur’an (Surah Al-Ma’un, 107:1–3)
"Have you seen the one who denies the Judgment? That is the one who repulses the orphan and does not encourage the feeding of the poor."
The Instructions of Ptahhotep (Egypt, ca. 2400 BCE)
"If you are a man who leads, listen calmly to the speech of one who pleads, and do not stop him from purging his heart. A petitioner likes attention to his words better than the fulfilling of what he asks."
Hillel in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a)
A prospective convert asked Hillel to summarize the Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel replied: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Now go and learn."
Compassion as proof of belief: Authentic moral commitment is evidenced by tangible care for society’s most vulnerable people.
Humble, attentive leadership: Those who wield authority must listen patiently and act with restraint and empathy toward petitioners.
Reciprocal empathy rule: Do not treat others in ways you would find hateful if the roles were reversed.
Seeing through impermanence: Recognizing the fleeting, illusory nature of all things loosens rigid attachments and fosters wise compassion.
Inner-mind ethics: Genuine morality begins with intentions and thoughts; merely avoiding outward wrongdoing is not enough.
Duty without attachment to results: One should perform assigned responsibilities wholeheartedly while letting go of personal ownership over the outcome.
Lifelong self-cultivation: Moral growth is a gradual process in which habits and desires are trained until they spontaneously align with what is right.
Baseline prohibitions for social harmony: A short list of “do-not” rules establishes the minimum conditions that keep a community from falling apart.
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PRE-CLASS
Hechter M & C Horne. "The Problem of Social Order"
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PRE-CLASS
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Human↔Individual&Social
Order
Cooperation produces public goods
Societies vary on how much cooperation and coordination
Both/And
Solipsism or Robinson Crusoe
Hive Mind
Coordination (predictability)
Cooperation
(non-selfishness)
Social Order
Resilience & Robustness
BUT
WHAT?
Prisoners' Dilemma
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"war of all against all"
Neoclassical Economics suggests order can emerge
Homo sociologicus
What is like this?
Public Goods Game
Hobbes 1651
Research Problem
Cooperation
(non-selfishness)
What do we observe?
But what if people can monitor and punish?
"nasty, brutish, and short"
SURVEY SAYS?
NOT all people are self-regarding; many are "strong reciprocators"
BUT
No institutions without order!
Homo economicus
humans have human values
humans are rational and selfish
Each of N players gets $Y.
Keep or invest X≤Y in public goods.
Total investment multiplied by M, 1<M≤N.
Public good is equally distributed.
public security
pollution
contract enforcement
team compensation
People catch on to the attractiveness of free-riding.
Behavior is revealed.
Any player can "spend" $1 to punish non-cooperators, costing them 10% of public good return.
Strong Reciprocity
cooperate conditional on others' cooperation; punish non-cooperators, even if it costs
If population is mix of pure selfish (free riders), strong reciprocators (who respond to sense of what people are doing on average), and others, the FRs bring down the average and this signals to CCs to cooperate less. And this spirals downward.
Even if many have pro-social values, if its conditional, unpunished free riders drag the system down.
Rousseau 1762
"Each...puts his person... under...the general will, and...we receive...part of the whole."
Humans are a mix of strong reciprocators, purely selfish, and various other types.
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Rational systems produce irrational outputs
Rational is what humans are "known for"
Functional vs Substantive Rationality
Groups
Ritual Focus
Experience of Groupness
Us-ness
How we do it around here. If you are one of us, I can anticipate how you will respond to circumstances.
Social contract rests on a foundation of social solidarity
Ritual
Emotional Energy
Solidarity
Cohesion
Sacred Profane
Shared Focus
Symbols
Norm Enforcement
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PRE-CLASS
Fehr, E & H Gintis. "Human Motivation and Social Cooperation"
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PRE-CLASS
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CLASS
Fehr & Gintis Public Goods Game with Optional Punishment
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS
Title: Cooperation and Punishment in the Public Goods Game
Duration: ~40–50 minutes
Materials:
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Each student receives a copy of the “Public Goods Game Tally Sheet”
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Calculator or spreadsheet for the instructor
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Whiteboard or projector for live tracking of group averages
🎯 OBJECTIVE
To explore the emergence and breakdown of cooperation in social groups and the role punishment can play in restoring social order.
👥 GROUP SETUP
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Divide students into groups of 4 to 8 players (must be consistent for accurate payoff structure).
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Assign each student a Player Number and have them fill in their name, number, N (number of players), and M (multiplier, e.g. M = 1.6) on the score sheet.
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CLASS
Fehr & Gintis Public Goods Game with Optional Punishment
🔁 ROUND STRUCTURE
🔹 Phase 1: 10 Rounds Without Punishment
Each player starts with 20 tokens per round.
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Step 1: Secret Contribution
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Each player secretly decides how much (0–20 tokens) to contribute to the public account.
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All contributions are collected and summed.
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Step 2: Calculate Group Payoff
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Total contributions × M = Group Gain.
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Group Gain is split equally among all players:
Payoff per citizen = M × (Total Give) ÷ N.
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Step 3: Individual Payoff
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Player Net = Endowment – My Give + Payoff per Citizen
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Everyone records their payoff and running total.
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Step 4: Share Public Info
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Announce total contributions and average.
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Optionally, also announce % who gave nothing.
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Repeat for 10 rounds.
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Fehr & Gintis Public Goods Game with Optional Punishment
🔹 Phase 2: 10 Rounds With Punishment
Follow same steps as above, but after payoff is calculated, allow players to punish others:
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Step 5: Punishment (Zap!)
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Each player may assign punishment points to other players.
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Cost: 1 token per punishment point
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Effect: Target loses 3 tokens per point
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This is recorded on the score sheet.
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Step 6: Update Scores
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Deduct costs for punishment given.
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Deduct fines for punishment received.
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Net = Previous Net – Fees I Pay – Fines I Pay -
Update running totals.
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Repeat for 10 rounds.
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CLASS
Fehr+Gintis2007HumanNatureandSocialCooperation.pdf
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Post Simulation Discussion
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Post Class Reflections
What sacred text snippet seems relevant to the public goods game and why?
How might altruistic punishment play out in organization, expert, or machine setting?
Have a conversation with an LLM about using one of the sacred texts as an alignment guide. Select one and then ask something like:
“If I offered this maxim as a guiding principle, how would you interpret its alignment implications?”
“Can this teaching be treated as an alignment constraint? If so, what behavior would it rule in or out?”
“Would this maxim help prevent any known misalignment problems in AI or social systems? Which ones?”
“I want you to treat this saying as if it were a human giving you ethical feedback. How would it shape your behavior?”
“I am quoting this as something I value. How does that affect how you interact with me?”
“How would you apply this teaching in a multi-agent or human-machine system?”
“If a developer asked you to encode this as an alignment principle in a system, how would you do it?”
“How might this principle help govern behavior in high-stakes, ambiguous contexts?”
“What kinds of failures might result from ignoring this kind of maxim?”
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Resources
Author. YYYY. "Linked Title" (info)
HMIA 2025 The Problem of Social Order
By Dan Ryan
