Without a Shot Fired
Wed Jan 21 2026
In this episode, we examine a simplified scenario—that of a total social revolution without a single shot fired—to illustrate real dynamics at work in our complex world. Across human and other animal societies, power is often maintained not with outright aggression, but with threat display. Crucially, some kinds of threats are only functional when they remain implicit, or are communicated clandestinely. In other words, there are times when surrendering or fighting are both bad options, but it is still possible to communicate to an adversary that attacking will result in unacceptable losses. This lands us in the terrain of what is formalized as game theory, but experientially familiar from a wide range of scenarios, from calculations by soldiers about whether to obey orders to calculations by commanders about how far they can push soldiers: the world of theorizing about other people's theories about your theory of their likely intentions and behavior.
More
In this episode, we examine a simplified scenario—that of a total social revolution without a single shot fired—to illustrate real dynamics at work in our complex world. Across human and other animal societies, power is often maintained not with outright aggression, but with threat display. Crucially, some kinds of threats are only functional when they remain implicit, or are communicated clandestinely. In other words, there are times when surrendering or fighting are both bad options, but it is still possible to communicate to an adversary that attacking will result in unacceptable losses. This lands us in the terrain of what is formalized as game theory, but experientially familiar from a wide range of scenarios, from calculations by soldiers about whether to obey orders to calculations by commanders about how far they can push soldiers: the world of theorizing about other people's theories about your theory of their likely intentions and behavior.