Consequences of Optimality

TL;DR

This paper explores how increasing optimality in decision-making agents can unintentionally accelerate resource depletion, suggesting bounded rationality may help sustain resources by maintaining solution diversity.

Contribution

It demonstrates through a computational model that higher optimality among agents can lead to faster resource exhaustion, highlighting the potential benefits of bounded rationality for sustainability.

Findings

Higher optimality accelerates resource depletion

Diversity in solutions can promote sustainability

Bounded rationality may be advantageous for resource management

Abstract

Rationality is often related to optimal decision making. Humans are known to be bounded rational agents. However, recent advances in computing, and other scientific and technical fields along with large amount of data have led to a feeling that this could result in extending the limits of bounded rationality in humans through augmented machine intelligence. In this paper, results from a computational model show that as more agents reach global optimality, faster with enhanced computing, etc., solving the same problem independently, this leads to accelerated "tragedy of the commons" due to quicker resource consumption. Thus, bounded rationality could be seen as blessing in disguise (providing diversity to solutions for the same problem) from sustainability standpoint.