Leveraging The Science of Cooperation to Build a Positive Future for Humanity

Athena Aktipis submitted this proposal to the Templeton Foundation. We are both Reed graduates. I sent her a link to the online course I used to teach on cooperation theory, and I presume she knows about my 2005 TED talk. She has not responded. I am a total fan of her work, but wonder what fucking academic snobbery has prevented her from a simple acknowledgement.

At the heart of this proposal is a foundational question: if cooperation is a core organizing principle of biological life and human flourishing, what does that reveal about the nature of the human person, and how should that insight guide the design of emerging technologies? Human beings are cooperation incarnate. Our bodies function because formerly independent cells coordinate their actions. Our minds develop through relationships of trust, reciprocity, and shared understanding. Across biological and social scales, breakdowns in cooperation lead to fragmentation and pathology.