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Scott Moehring

Role: Game theory and systems thinker, Playing Games Model developer

Contributions to the Discussion

Scott brought a unique perspective grounded in personality psychology and game theory, offering frameworks for understanding curiosity as a trait and social interaction.

Big Five Personality Traits and Openness

Scott introduced the Big Five Personality Traits model to the discussion:

"If we look at the Big Five personality model, which is the statistically verified model of personality, Openness is one of the five dimensions."

He explained that Openness includes:

Key Insight on Evolutionary Balance

"Neither end of the spectrum is evolutionarily better, which is why we have the spectrum. Sometimes you need to be less open."

Scott argued that low openness has value:

"Sometimes you need to be more literal, or more practical, or more tradition, or history, or ritual."

Selection Bias

Scott agreed with Jerry Michalski's observation about selection bias:

"This group tends to be high in openness... this room attracts those kinds of people."

Modern Challenges to Curiosity

Scott offered several provocative observations:

Fear of Permanence

"@Jerry - possibly afraid of saying anything that isn't quite figured out or 'right' because the internet is forever. Exploring ideas out loud can be punished."

Identity Information as Liability

"In a world of screen names and anonymous posting, perhaps someone's country of origin, education, gender, race, religion, age, etc can be a distraction or information to be used for insults, more often than connection. We avoid pain more than seek pleasure."

The BS Meter Hypothesis

"Could it be that their BS meter is more finely tuned? That they realize that most of the things that they are being asked to be curious about are being decided by other people?"

The Playing Games Model

Scott developed a model proposing that every interaction is a game with five universal elements:

  1. Goal - purpose, point, reason for interacting
  2. Rules - what's allowed or not (stated, implied, or customary)
  3. Voluntary - invitation AND acceptance, constantly renegotiated
  4. Uncertain - can't know the outcome for sure
  5. Improve - requires some skill

"It's been the most fascinating value I've gotten from my Playing Games model."

DSRP Theory

Scott cited DSRP Theory as "the most important and practical thing I've ever learned":

"I think it is the organization and reorganization of information that is the primary space of curiosity."

Defining Curiosity

Scott offered an experimental definition:

"Curiosity = Noticing things you didn't have to notice."

After feedback from John Warinner and Pete Kaminski, he refined it:

"Curiosity extends beyond 'noticing' and gets into 'exploring'"

He explored the relationship between noticing and curiosity:

"Which comes first? Curious leading to noticing, or noticing leading to curiosity? That's something I will be pondering."

Essential Knowledge Question

"Is it important to know how to change a flat tire, if you can get it done through other means? We might feel like that is ridiculous that they wouldn't know how to do that, but is it still 'essential knowledge' in a modern world?"

On Writing and Thinking

"@LP1 Love this. Writing = thinking! I think it's fundamentally different than speaking."

Multi-Perspectival Humbleness

Scott added the concept of "multi-perspectival humbleness" to the Excalidraw board, contributing to Alex Kladitis's points about considering multiple viewpoints.

ELIZA and Human-AI Interaction

Scott brought up the ELIZA chatbot to illustrate how humans anthropomorphize AI:

"@Pete Kaminski Even the coders who developed the Macintosh psychotherapist still got sucked in to treating it like a person."

He shared: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

This highlighted the tendency to project human qualities onto AI systems, even among those who understand their limitations.

Links Shared

Themes Scott Explored

Related Participants

Related Concepts

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