With the constant improvements in automation and robotics, there has been growing discussion around exactly what to do in terms of income and taxation. Because, as a robot arm replaces a human and can work 24-hours a day, ununionized and without salary or holidays - the income that used to go into the economy from a human, goes into the pockets of shareholders instead. This means that the more automated a corporation becomes, the worse it actually gets for the economy as a whole, because distribution of wealth decreases and humans increasingly suffer.
Should a human be valued more or less than a robot?
Ethical dilemma aside, there is currently a Splinterlands Proposal that will try to implement anti-bot measures into the Modern format, to see if it is possible to disrupt the many bot that are dominating the game, farming for the owners. They can't really be called "players" anymore, can they? Essentially, they are the shareholders of the factory that has replaced people with robot arms, maximizing their wealth, even if it is a detriment to the community.
That is my opinion at the moment, at least.
You might disagree and I am open to being wrong. But, I think that once a game only has bots playing it, it is just a farming mechanism, not a game. It is like all those gambling apps that were running millions of daily transactions on EOS. Remember EOS?
The bots might be making money that sweet passive income for those running the bots, but at the end of the day, it is highly unattractive for anyone to actually invest and take part in the game, which means that it whittles away the value down to nothing. Likely, this is okay for many of the early in players who didn't necessarily invest much at all, but have taken quite extreme gains over the last few years - but what about the longevity of the project?
You might still disagree.
However, what is interesting is that the proposal was originally floated to create a new anti-bot league, but 
Seems like a plan to me.
And if it works well, there is nothing stopping the Splinterlands Team creating a new league later that is anti-bot, moving Modern back to as it is now. Especially at these economic times and with so many projects ongoing that are looking to add value to the same people who are using the bots, it is better to test with the beds available.
Imagine going to the football to see your favorite team and instead of players on the field, they had a EA Sports FIFA game played computer against computer, broadcast on the bigscreen. would you stay and watch it, would you cheer it on, would you buy a scarf and shirt of your favorite footballer, bot #164566-1337?
I hate playing against bots. I hate losing to them also - which is happening more and more now. But, it isn't just my playing experience that is being impacted, because I think that long term as an investment, bots reduce the value significantly. The reason is that because they are able to maximize earnings, they will also be able to win more record cards, SPS and have more available to invest into things like new packs, and more cards to flesh out their collection. This means that the gap will increasingly grow between the human players and the bot users, creating the same pathetic economy that we have in the world today - one of increasingly poor distribution, where skill no longer matters, the best collection wins.
For a while, this will make some people increasingly wealthy, but what happens once there is no demand to actually buy into Splinterlands because of the value distribution becoming so poor? it gets abandoned, right? People stop trying to compete and instead, go elsewhere to spend their time and money, and there are going to be no shortage of crypto games to choose from in the coming couple years. We have a chance as a community to make this something, yet we are losing that chance because of convenience. Again.
It is just so easy. Set and forget!
Forget we will.
We talk about being participating in crypto and supporting projects to build a better future, but at the end of the day, the majority of "participants" are just like the shareholders of the companies that are maximizing the profits with robots, so that they don't have to put as much into the economy for humans, increasing their own wealth in the process. Complain about the politicians, corporations and bankers...
Act like the politicians, corporations and bankers...
Will we ever learn?
Unlikely it seems, Because at the end of the day, we are far less community minded and far more self-centered than we would like people to believe. We can never have to much and can never have enough. We are insatiable, and unless we are physically stopped from maximizing, we will do just that. When the incentive and mechanisms are in place that allow for maximization behavior, it is folly to believe that enough people will choose to "do the right thing" when it will cost them. We have seen this on Steem, we have seen it on Hive, we are seeing it on Splinterlands. It has to be hardcoded into the system, and it has to be continually reviewed and adjusted, because nothing is perfect and systems will continually be undermined, because that is what people are incentivized to do - take advantage.
But, just because there is an advantage for some now, it shouldn't be assumed that it will always be the case and it will never change. There has to be ways to adjust and shift the advantage, otherwise like all capitalist systems, it will eat itself otherwise. This is a challenge when there is a stake-weighted system of course, especially since the ones that have the largest advantage, are also those with the largest stakes to either promote what maximizes them, or veto what doesn't - even if it is a detriment overall.
Anyway, I am not surprised that people who are using bots don't want anti-bot attempts trialed, but I am a bit disappointed I guess. It reminds me of the changes on Steem in order to curb selfvoting and bidbots - the pushback was strong from those benefiting from it the most. But, until it was coded, the community was largely powerless, because we all work on incentive.
Personally, even if the attempt fails, I believe that making the attempt is worth it, because there is a lot that can be learned in the process that can help all of us later too. The application might be for bots now, but it could lead to more security or perhaps, other economic mechanisms that bring additional value to the ecosystem that benefits us all.
Maybe some decisions should be weighted to those who are thinking about the bigger picture, rather than just having their eyes on maximizing their gains, or having their gains reduced. Very few are going to lose anything in this attempt, but they might have to spend a more time and earn a bit less, if they have to play for themselves.
The daily Focus should be on humans.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
