166
8 How Society Works
us the latest news, the most controversial stories, the news that our friends are interested in, or a surprise filter. Then, we could choose among a set of filters that we
find useful. To assess credibility and relevance, these filters should ignore sources of
information that we regard as unreliable (e.g. anonymous ratings) and put a focus on
information sources that we trust (e.g. the opinions of friends or family members).
For this purpose, users should also be able to rate and comment on products, companies, news, information, and sources of information. If this were the case, spammers
would quickly lose their reputation and their influence would wane.
In concert, all personalized information filters together would establish an “information ecosystem”, where filters would evolve by modification and selection. This
would steadily enhance our ability to find meaningful information. As a result, the
personalized reputational value of each company and their products would give
a differentiated picture, which additionally would help firms to customize their
products. Hence, reputation systems can have advantages for both, consumers and
businesses, which creates a win-win situation.
In summary, while societies all over the world are still buckling under the pressure
of globalization, a globalized world does not need to produce social and economic
instability. By creating global, pluralistic reputation systems, we can build a wellfunctioning “global village”. This is achieved by matching people or companies with
others who share compatible interests. However, it will be crucial to design reputation
systems in such a way that they allow privacy and innovation to thrive. Furthermore,
future reputation systems should be resistant to manipulation. Appendix 7.1 provides
some ideas on how this may be achieved.
8.16 Merit-Based Matching: Who Pays More Earns More
Note that most cooperation-enhancing mechanisms, including special kinds of
contracts between interaction partners, modify interactions in a way that turn a social
dilemma situation into something else. Such a transformation is also often reached
by taxing undesirable behaviors or by offering tax reductions for favorable behaviors.
In other words, the payoff structure is changed in a way that makes cooperation a
natural and stable outcome.
31
However, there is also another mechanism to promote cooperation, which is quite
stunning. This mechanism, which I proposed together with Sergi Lozano,
32 introduces an additional feedback loop in the social system, whereby more complex
dynamic interdependencies and additional solutions are produced. When Heinrich
Nax joined my team, we elaborated an example implementation of this mechanism, which is based on “merit-based matching”.
33 Accordingly, agents who have
contributed much to a collective good are matched with other high-level contributors,
31 Helbing and Johansson [23].
32 Helbing and Lozano [24].
33 Nax et al. [25].
8 How Society Works
us the latest news, the most controversial stories, the news that our friends are interested in, or a surprise filter. Then, we could choose among a set of filters that we
find useful. To assess credibility and relevance, these filters should ignore sources of
information that we regard as unreliable (e.g. anonymous ratings) and put a focus on
information sources that we trust (e.g. the opinions of friends or family members).
For this purpose, users should also be able to rate and comment on products, companies, news, information, and sources of information. If this were the case, spammers
would quickly lose their reputation and their influence would wane.
In concert, all personalized information filters together would establish an “information ecosystem”, where filters would evolve by modification and selection. This
would steadily enhance our ability to find meaningful information. As a result, the
personalized reputational value of each company and their products would give
a differentiated picture, which additionally would help firms to customize their
products. Hence, reputation systems can have advantages for both, consumers and
businesses, which creates a win-win situation.
In summary, while societies all over the world are still buckling under the pressure
of globalization, a globalized world does not need to produce social and economic
instability. By creating global, pluralistic reputation systems, we can build a wellfunctioning “global village”. This is achieved by matching people or companies with
others who share compatible interests. However, it will be crucial to design reputation
systems in such a way that they allow privacy and innovation to thrive. Furthermore,
future reputation systems should be resistant to manipulation. Appendix 7.1 provides
some ideas on how this may be achieved.
8.16 Merit-Based Matching: Who Pays More Earns More
Note that most cooperation-enhancing mechanisms, including special kinds of
contracts between interaction partners, modify interactions in a way that turn a social
dilemma situation into something else. Such a transformation is also often reached
by taxing undesirable behaviors or by offering tax reductions for favorable behaviors.
In other words, the payoff structure is changed in a way that makes cooperation a
natural and stable outcome.
31
However, there is also another mechanism to promote cooperation, which is quite
stunning. This mechanism, which I proposed together with Sergi Lozano,
32 introduces an additional feedback loop in the social system, whereby more complex
dynamic interdependencies and additional solutions are produced. When Heinrich
Nax joined my team, we elaborated an example implementation of this mechanism, which is based on “merit-based matching”.
33 Accordingly, agents who have
contributed much to a collective good are matched with other high-level contributors,
31 Helbing and Johansson [23].
32 Helbing and Lozano [24].
33 Nax et al. [25].