Simulating Compassion

Wright is essentially (from the greek ontos – that without which a thing cannot exist) saying that our biologically based kin selection style compassion has expanded our moral imagination and that one of the enzymes has been travel and technology. 

He referred to roads, the wheel, and writing which in many ways has just made the world smaller. The internet has made the world smaller and as Thomas Friedman argues, flat (the playing field is level for all). I can recall a photographer I saw speak at Ohio University say that travel is the best antidote to prejudice. This makes sense; once you spend time with people outside your kin selection circle you begin to realize that they share the same life issues as you do…and your what Steven Pinker calls, moral circle, expands. 

This brings me to something I began thinking about after, oddly enough, some sports related events that happened while I was working at the Ohio University College of Medicine with a very smart, opinionated colleague.

The first thing was that he considered Bobby Knight a great basketball coach because he won and because he had a good graduation rate. We’ll come back to Bobby Knight. 

The second thing was Todd Bertuzzi’s hit on fellow NHL player Steve Moore. After this incident began to make national headlines our office began to talk about the hit and I discovered that some people took no issue with this and referred to it as “part of the game.” 

Alright, so how could these two sports incidents in any way relate to Robert Wright’s TED talk?

I think what could help speed up the expanding of the moral circle or moral imagination, if you will, is simulation. S-I-M-U-L-A-T-I-O-N.

Back to Bobby Knight: so while discussing whether or not Bobby Knight qualifies as a great coach with my colleague, I brought up the point that he choked one of his players, Neil Reed, during a practice. So I asked my colleague if he would consider Bobby Knight a great coach if he choked one of his daughters.

I think he was dishonest when he answered “yes, and she’d deserve it.” He hung on to his point to try to save the argument but it got me thinking. 

What if we could simulate these events and put in people that are really relevant to you or my colleagues (in your kin selection circle if you will)? 

So take the Bobby Knight and Todd Vertuzzi videos and use technology to replace the practically meaningless Neil Reeds and Steve Moore’s with your children, or your brother, or your sister? 

Wouldn’t this assist in expanding our moral imagination and bring a healthy dose of compassion to our sports and perhaps to the world at large?

What if we could use simulation to replace the nameless, faceless victims of domestic or sexual violence with those in your kin selected circle? Would you feel the same about Ray Rice if that were your daughter or your wife or your sister? What if the faces of the dead from drone attacks that show on the nightly news were replaced with those in your kin selected circle? What if Eric Garner were replaced with someone you love?

Would you feel the same?