"I don't get it."<\/p>\n
"Yeah, I guess the rules are kind of complicated, but\u2014"<\/p>\n
"No, I mean, I think understood the literal content of your explanation, but I don't understand how the behavior you describe could arise from the rules as stated. What stops teams from just cooperating with each other?"<\/p>\n
"Cooperating? What do you mean?"<\/p>\n
"You say advancing the ball to the other side of the field is a touchdown<\/em> worth six points?"<\/p>\n "Yes, plus a point-after kick or two-point conversion attempt."<\/p>\n "So why don't the teams just take turns scoring touchdowns?"<\/p>\n "What? Why would they do that?"<\/p>\n "To score points. You said that was the objective of the game."<\/p>\n "Oh, ah\u2014I didn't realize I needed to explain this part\u2014the goal is to get more<\/em> points than the other team. The team with more points is called the winner of the game, and the other team loses."<\/p>\n "So it's a zero-sum<\/em> game?"<\/p>\n "Well\u2014yes."<\/p>\n "But that's barbaric!"<\/p>\n "That's ... not usually<\/em> the reason people call football barbaric."<\/p>\n "Lower animals fight over fixed resources, the power to create<\/em> opportunities lying far beyond their abilities and even their concept-space. But you, living at the dawn of your world's intelligence, you have the rare opportunity to build new<\/em> worlds\u2014and share the proceeds between you. And you waste your energy on this contrived imitation of a payoff matrix that it is your birthright to supersede! It is revolting."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" "I don't get it." "Yeah, I guess the rules are kind of complicated, but\u2014" "No, I mean, I think understood the literal content of your explanation, but I don't understand how the behavior you describe could arise from the rules … Continue reading