Steven Pinker on Coordination, Common Knowledge, and the Retreat of Liberal Enlightenment

<p class="MsoNormal" style= "mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; mso-outline-level: 2;"> <span style= "font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> Steven Pinker returns to Conversations with Tyler with an argument that common knowledge—those infinite loops of "I know that you know that I know"—is the hidden infrastructure that enables human coordination, from accepting paper money to toppling dictators.</span> <span style= "font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos;"> But Tyler wonders: if most real-world coordination works fine without recursively looping (a glance at a traffic circle), if these models break down with the slightest change in assumptions, and if anonymous internet posters are making correct but uncomfortable truths common knowledge...