#Incentive Systems

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Reward and Punishment

The philosophy of reward and punishment explores the moral, ethical, and psychological principles that underlie systems of incentives and deterrents in human behavior. It seeks to understand why societies reward certain behaviors and punish others, and what the implications of these actions are for individuals, communities, and justice.

Key Aspects of the Philosophy of Reward and Punishment:

1. Moral Foundations

Utilitarian Justification: Utilitarianism argues that reward and punishment should be used to maximize overall happiness or well-being. Rewarding good behavior promotes future benefits, while punishing bad behavior deters actions that harm others.

Deontological Ethics: From a deontological perspective (duty-based ethics), punishment and reward may be seen as deserved outcomes based on an individual’s actions. People deserve rewards for fulfilling duties and punishments for violating moral rules, regardless of the consequences.

2. Theories of Justice

Retributive Justice: Retribution focuses on the idea that wrongdoers should be punished because they deserve it. It is backward-looking, emphasizing moral culpability and the concept of "just deserts" — the belief that people should get what they deserve based on their actions.

Restorative Justice: This approach focuses on repairing the harm caused by wrong actions rather than simply punishing the offender. The goal is to restore relationships and create a more equitable situation for both the wrongdoer and the victim.

Deterrence: One major reason for punishment is deterrence — to prevent future wrongdoing by making the consequences of bad behavior undesirable. Similarly, rewards are offered to encourage behaviors that benefit individuals and society.

3. Psychological Foundations

Behaviorism: In psychology, especially in behaviorism, rewards (positive reinforcement) and punishments (negative reinforcement) are key tools for shaping behavior. Reward reinforces behavior, making it more likely to recur, while punishment seeks to reduce undesirable actions.

Operant Conditioning: The principles of operant conditioning, developed by B.F. Skinner, explain how behavior can be learned or modified through systems of rewards and punishments. The effectiveness of these methods depends on factors like timing, consistency, and the nature of the reward or punishment.

4. Ethical Criticism of Punishment

Moral Limits: Some ethical perspectives argue that certain forms of punishment are unjust, inhumane, or excessive. Philosophers like Michel Foucault critique the use of punishment in society, highlighting its role in exerting control and power over individuals rather than simply serving justice.

Punishment as Harm: From an ethical standpoint, inflicting harm through punishment can be problematic. It raises the question of whether causing harm (through imprisonment, physical punishment, etc.) can be justified in the name of justice.

5. Social Contract Theory

Role of Society: Social contract theorists like Hobbes and Locke argue that people agree to give up certain freedoms in exchange for the protection and order provided by society. Punishment for wrongdoing and rewards for positive contributions are part of maintaining this social contract, ensuring that society functions effectively.

6. Incentive Systems and Economics

Economic Perspectives: In economics and political philosophy, rewards and punishments can be seen as part of incentive systems that influence behavior. Rewards such as bonuses, wages, and promotions incentivize hard work, while punishments like fines and job loss deter poor performance or unethical actions.

Game Theory: Game theory explores how people’s decisions are influenced by expected rewards or punishments. It shows how individuals strategize their actions based on potential outcomes, often influenced by the rewards or consequences they expect to receive.

7. Consequentialism vs. Retributivism

Consequentialist Approach: From a consequentialist standpoint (e.g., utilitarianism), rewards and punishments are justified by their outcomes. If they lead to more happiness or less suffering, they are morally acceptable.

Retributivist Approach: In contrast, retributivism argues that rewards and punishments should not merely be based on outcomes but on desert. People should be rewarded or punished based on their actions, irrespective of the consequences.

Ethical Dilemmas and Debates:

Fairness in Distribution: What constitutes a fair reward or punishment? Should rewards and punishments be proportional to effort, intention, or outcome?

Efficacy: Does punishment effectively deter crime or poor behavior? Some argue that rehabilitation and education are more effective than harsh punishment.

Moral Desert: Do people truly deserve the rewards or punishments they receive, or are they the result of luck, circumstance, or societal structure?

The philosophy of reward and punishment deals with the ethical and practical reasons for encouraging certain behaviors while discouraging others. It involves balancing justice, fairness, and social utility to promote a functioning society. The debate between retributive justice and consequentialist ethics remains central to discussions on how and why we reward or punish actions.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*tries to organize my thoughts*

*remembers i'm not in school and therefore beholden to neither heaven nor hell nor any man's grading system*

*joyously shredding & tossing all my carefully arranged 3x5 mental notecards into the air like so much beige confetti. raising my arms in victory, cheering raucously until i accidentally inhale bits of homemade confetti*

(*coughing up itty bits of paper like a cat evicting a hairball with a firm understanding of tenants' rights*) wait wat happens next

[snurtle]

I've been thinking about the templars lately. they were promised honor, virtue, told that they would be charged with protection of the innocent... And then those same people are systemically exploited and abused, abuse others because they're taught to regard everyone else as either sheep who need to be lead or potential threats. Never equals, except in their brothers/sisters-in-arms. They act as the guard-dogs and military arm of an entirely different organization that they're only a functionary member of but have no governing say in. Even the chantry aren't their equals- they function as the templar order's supervisors! And all this isolation and closing of ranks ends in disability, addiction, death, and abandonment by the system they spent their bodies in service of.

To top that off, retaliations against them just confirm the paranoia they were taught to embrace. It's probably a long hard road to get out of that hole.

Like, listen. the dichotomy of mage vs templars is a satisfying and easy one, but the system is tearing them apart too. have you ever heard of a retired templar?

at the end of it, mages and templars need to unite against the real threat. the chantry.

[astralleywright]

How do you feel about Orym's deal with Morri?

There was something kind of funny about Liam getting increasingly obvious - 'ORYM HAS DARK VINES IN HIS VEINS. YOU CAN ALL SEE THIS.' and it still going unacknowledged, but now it just feels like a damp squib. (to me at least)

anon i had no fucking idea what a damp squib was. i thought you mispelled squid. it makes perfect sense now that i've looked it up-you damn british-and i agree but i was SO confused about what squids had to do with any of this

anyways, onto the actual answer-yeah. it's a shame, because its one of the most interesting decisions Orym has made, and maybe the most interesting one that has managed to stick around and inform the character, but. it's been treated so underwhelmingly so far that its hard not to think about it as such.

and i don't blame the other hells at all, really. they were on the moon! and then FCG died and who knew if Orym's deal was relevant any longer! one of their own spontaneously learning to teleport is just an average tuesday for them! (as i've joked before, they might just think its ashari shit! [FCG voice] he's doing it! his aramante!)

as someone who's been playing a similarly reticent and repressed character for the last year and a half in a weekly COfD game, one thing i quickly learned is that if you sit back and wait for the other pcs to ask, you might be waiting a really long time. if you're waiting for the other pcs not just to ask but to push and prod over your continued avoidance, you might be waiting forever. the other players are fallible, and probably don't know your character as well as you, and have their own characters as well as a billion other things to focus on. they may be too wrapped up in their own problems or the problems of the pcs who already shared to (or might simply be playing a character that would not) ask about yours.

take the confession during swordgate: it was in the middle of a tense situation where one of the party members (Laudna) was in clear emotional distress, two of them (Imogen and Ashton) were completely focused on her, and two of them (Dorian and Braius) didn't know what Orym even meant by it or that it was a secret up to that point. that left Fearne and Chetney, and Chetney may or may not have been asleep at the time. so that leaves Fearne. she clearly clocked it and has the most reason to care, but Fearne is honestly even more emotionally repressed and avoidant than Orym, and with all due respect to Ashley, she is not who i would rely on for "initiating rp conversations" and "remembering things."

(Also Fearne tried to check on Orym earlier that day and this was his response, so like.)

TTRPGS are collaborative, yeah, but i would argue that part of that is not leaving the responsibility of your own character’s development largely to the other players. Or if you do, accepting that you might be playing a character whose vivid inner life remains entirely hidden, and also that that might not be as interesting to the other players as the things they can readily interact with. Which makes it less likely for them to follow up on it, and so on, until "sold the rest of my life to a hag to protect everyone" kind of feels like a damp squib.

[retrocgads]

UK 1987

[naivety]

left wingers who live in deep red states might be especially equipped to normalize voting third party for president this election if they're of the mind not to vote blue. there are plenty people who don't want to vote for harris due to her right wing pandering and policies, but even if we did, gerrymandering has made it impossible for our blue vote to make a lick of difference in the presidential race specifically. my county and my state have never not been red in my entire two+ decades of living here and that's not going to change this election, but i can help contribute to the slow growing trend of third party presidential candidates being platformed in the mainstream on paper.

[shsl-leader]

Hi! We made a server for fictives from death game-type or general horror media, and/or fans of it!

Get it? Cause its a pun of Meta-fiction... which is often horror.. and... meta-fictive...

Come say hi! I promise I only bite a little bit

[area51-escapee]

I think it’s really easy to write off everyone who voted for trump as acting purely out of malice and intentional evil because it means you don’t have to think about any conditions that led them to that conclusion, you don’t even have to think of them as a person, just a tally mark on a board of “people who are 100% evil and nothing like me”, so I always find it both relieving and very interesting when people actually discuss these people as human beings and look at what led them to make these decisions. Sure it’s not as easy as making them out to be inhuman monsters, but it’s definitely a lot more interesting to learn about imo.

[identitty-dickruption]

the fucked thing about being in an environment with high negative polarisation is that it incentivises policy convergence. which means the more we hate each other, the more incentive there is for the political class to act the same as each other. but if you talk about this too much it either makes people hopeless (which contributes to polarisation) or people call you a psyop (which also contributes to polarisation). it’s all a big loop we are in the bad place

[raisengen]

It's a real tragedy how good the Morrowind/Oblivion levelling system becomes once you install a mod that just silently calculates your attribute increases in the background instead of manually via level-up prompts. It feels entirely natural and immersive.

No level-up screens, no picking perks or feats, no artificial building decisions; you simply get better at whatever it is you're doing. After you've left the tutorial, every character development choice is something done in-game, in-character, in the same way you'd do it IRL. You're one or two short steps from killing off the idea of character level entirely.

(A small fly in the ointment are the perks you get passively in Oblivion as you train skills, since those give you thresholds to cram for, but otherwise you have little reason to pay attention to your stat screen beyond noting your overall progress.)

Unfortunately that's not the system we got, and instead we have 2.5k word wiki pages explaining how to optimise your entire playthrough around not screwing up your stats.

[ottawacharge]

one day i will break and write a manifesto on ottawa and sports arena development and when that happens! please take me out back

[favorite-worst-nightmare]

Every time I forget to update simply plural a really hot girl DIES

[hcklbrryfg]

the psycho-spiritual tension between me fighting to justify buying a new stylus (which has forced a comic i was really excited about into a hiatus, putting me into a creative slump/depression) and the only inbox messages i get being random gaza fundraisers

[edwardseymour]

Love that we're blaming Jane for Anne and the other men's deaths, she was a wild woman after all lol. Honestly though whenever I see that take I'm like how many deaths are we now allowed to lay at Anne and Elizabeth's feet? All those people that refused to sign the oath of succession?

you see, it’s different, because one was judicial murder to facilitate a regime change and the other was legal execution where the forced submission to a regime change failed. very different!

[kisuminight]

Some more worldbuilding bits about aether and Blades!

So aether is what makes the "code" of this 'verse function. It's sort of a background particle; everyone, Player, mob, Blade, and god, interacts with aether on an environmental basis. Aether volume in the environment varies server-to-server. A server created by a god, such as DreamSMP being created by DreamXD in this AU, will usually have a higher aether concentration than another server.

Blades are beings meant to process aether to keep the universe running. Since they are made of aether, they have the ability to interact with the underlying code of the universe. Blades absorb ambient aether from the environment, circulate it in their systems, and then release it. This is the equivalent of looking at a piece or section of code, checking it for bugs and glitches, and then moving on to the next section of code.

Blades circulate aether through their bodies and core crystals. The aether passes along the Resonance bond to the Driver (which allows the Driver to interact with code) and then moves back to the Blade. This is a constant process. Blades do have a minimum, a maximum, and an average of aether that they circulate.

When a Blade's emotions are running high--such as in a fight--the amount of aether a Blade is circulating is increased. If a Blade is resting, the amount of aether they are circulating decreases.

Aether lines are visible lines of light on the skin of a Blade, like veins in a human. They start at the core crystal and go outwards, to the Blade's hands and feet. Most Blades do not have aether lines above the neck, though it is possible (both in general, and if the core crystal is placed somewhere on the face or head). Aether line patterns are more like a circuit board than the branching tree-like pathways of veins or arteries.

Aether lines tend to dim and brighten with the amount of aether the Blade is circulating. There are normally slight fluctuations in a normal brightness, like a heartbeat. Strong emotions make the fluctuations sharper and closer together. If there is less aether circulating, the fluctuations tend to be farther apart. Blades with very good aether control can control the fluctuations enough to use them for communication (a visible version of morse code), though that can be very rough on the Resonance between Blade and Driver.

Blades can also circulate aether to other Blades if there are multiple Blades in a Resonance. Since the aether circulation is constant, it does allow the other Blades in the Resonance to use that Blade's elemental aether.

Blades can also pass aether through skin-to-skin contact. It's not enough to give the other Blade an elemental boost, but it does allow "shallow" emotions or brief snippets of emotions to be passed between Blades. It is fairly common for non-enemy Blades to greet each other by bumping against or brushing against each other. If it is a longer meeting, two Blades who are not in Resonance with each other tend to gravitate together and be touchy-feely or cuddling during down-time.

Blades that are not Awake still pull and circulate aether. Blades have an inbuilt network and can circulate aether along it when they are not Awake. This is their natural state. Awake Blades interacting and sharing aether invokes a positive feeling in both Blades because of it.

Too much aether can be a bad thing. Every Player has a certain level of aether tolerance, and going above it can be very dangerous. In Players, the signs of aether over-exposure tend to be drawn out. I've mentioned before that aether builds up gradually like a heavy metal poisoning. Signs of aether poisoning start with lethargy and increased emotional instability, and gradually increases to physical pain (constant headache, joint pain), manic episodes, and, in the worst cases, sometimes issues with forming short term memories.

The only way to reverse aether poisoning is time; if the Player had a Blade, the Resonance usually needs to be broken and the Blade must find a different Driver. If the Player is suffering because the ambient aether levels are too high, then they need to move to another server with lower aether levels.

Blades can also receive too much aether. I mentioned previously that aether for Blades is more of a capacity thing, and exceeding the capacity they are able to process can cause immediate injury.

Since Blades' bodies are formed from solidified aether, anything going wrong with how much aether they are processing has an immediate effect on the body. It can glitch out, or start cracking apart around the aether lines. If the amount of aether is too excessive, it can cause the core crystal to crack. A cracked core crystal severely weakens, and can even kill, a Blade.

[d-i-r-k-s-t-r-i-d-e-r]

take the blackpill: bad outcomes are usually not because of malice but rather systemic incentives