4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

Post by komali2 » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:47 AM UTC

mcmoor wrote: post #60

specialist wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> huge incentive to deceive each other Disagree. Iterated prisoner's dilemma leads to cooperation.

There's so many variants of prisoner's dilemma at this point which have their own winner I give up tracking. I've heard the most "realistic" one have titfortat as winner, but I've also heard that in certain population mixture, the one who defect more wins.

Sure, it's a bit of an absurdity eventually, but when we talk about what we're actually trying to talk about with prisoner's dilemma, which is interpersonal and intergroup interaction, publicly announcing intent to collaborate and then consistently following through on that promise, seems to yield the most desirable results.

Post by rramadass » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 10:47 AM UTC

__rito__ wrote: post #58

rramadass wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually a thought-provoking book and a must read. History as taught today is very much misunderstood/skewed/euro-centric and many times plain wrong. The wikipedia page itself gives the highlights and worth reading. A very good example comes from India itself i.e. "The Paradox of Indian History" which is the dichotomy between Archeological Evidence (Indus Valley, Ashoka's inscriptions etc.) vs. Literary Evide…

Something should be noted: equality didn't save them. They grew more equal, maybe. But that couldn't save them from barbaric hordes/drought/a combination of these or more. They became extinct. To an "educated", emotional mind guarded in a safe place, economic prosperity, the tenets of equality might show promise, but, they might ultimately be sans utility when seen from the lens of survival, thriving, etc.

The dichotomy between "Civilization" and "Barbarism" is longstanding. The writer Robert Howard said;

“Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.”

Here by "Civilzation" i mean explicitly; philosophical ideas/frameworks, societal beliefs/structures/traditions etc. far beyond what is needed for mere survival. For example, Buddhism took the idea of Ahimsa from Hinduism (where its limitations were known) and turned it into the utopian idea of complete non-violence which was then made state policy in kingdoms of North India and current-day Pakistam/Afghanistan. The result was that they fell easily to the islamic barbarians who played by a different set of rules.

What we need is Civilization but with the necessary Barbaric tendencies assuring survival (i.e. procreation and societal self-defense) still maintained.

Note here that this idea has been corrupted by western countries during their colonial rule time period. So you have to be careful to disambiguate legitimate ideas from overt/covert racism.

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time

Re: 4K years ago, Mohenjo-daro grew more equal over time