Oversimplifications in HtN -- Philosophy and biology

[Richard Stallman]

    How the heck do you get that out of a presentation that includes
    John Locke, microeconomic analysis, and several million years of
    human evolutionary history? 

You've said many things in your carreer; I have not read your papers
recently.  I'm responding to things you said earlier in this
discussion, such as this:

    Not quite.  My claim is more like this:

    1. Most hackers are motivated by the reputation game, whether or not
       they realize it consciously.  (Most don't, but come to realize it
       once they see the analysis and do a little introspection.)

    2. For those who are not, their behavior can be correctly predicted by
       an "as if" because it's the way they learn to function in the culture.

You are urging us to understand hackers' motivations in terms of a
"reputation game", even if we know that is not always what they
actually feel, because that suffices for "predicting their behavior".

I was unable to find the earlier part of the discussion, but I recall
that when Ian stated his motivations, you said that they were beside
the point, because (you believed) his behavior could be predicted from
reputation-seeking anyway.  That is surely not true if we count, as
part of his behavior, his messages in this discussion.  So you must be
using "behavior" in a narrow sense.

So I stand by what I have said.

I expect most people want admiration, at least among other things.
But there is more than one kind of admiration a person can seek.  Bill
Gates may want to be admired for making a lot of money, Donald Knuth
may want to be admired for good programming, and I may prefer to be
admired for standing firm for the community but settle if necessary
for being admired for good programming.

Thus, even if we look only at people whose principal motivation is
desire for admiration, their other beliefs, convictions, and so on
will affect what they do to seek it.  Our values about life affect our
actions.  Talking about values with other people will affect their
actions.