Stephen Downes

We need to distinguish between 'selfish' behaviour and 'autonomous' behaviour. It is not obvious (and probably false) that self-directed behaviour will be (strictly) self-interested behaviour. Why would ants teach other ants, otherwise? How would self-sacrifice ever have emerged as a moral good? So this article, I would argue, is fundamentally misguided, and that the effort to "investigate the loss of collective welfare due to selfish and uncoordinated behavior" is something different than described here. I argue, indeed, that it is 'managed behaviour' that creates the loss of collective welfare, not autonomous behaviour.