LyricMeaning

The Planter's Dilemma
Baba Brinkman

So you want hippies huh?

Alright, I’ll give you hippies

Come to BC, meet some tree platners

We’ll teach you ‘bout the prisoner’s dilemma


I was raised with a spade in my hand – ecosystem

Restoration is the game that my fam plays

Reforestation of our native land – pine, larch

Spruce, fir – the species we mainly plant

Rappers wanna brag about a seven figure salary

I’ve planted seven figures worth of trees by hand

With ten fingers in the dirt since the age of seventeen

If you ask me, I’ll be like, yeah, that’s a G

Planting trees is kinda like the game of life

You get paid for your efforts and never paid for your time

Yeah, it’s piecework, so there’s a rat-race side

You gotta hustle if you wanna make your pay-cheque nice

But it’s team-work, ‘cause you’re workin’ with a crew

And you gotta coordinate with the person next to you

‘Cause the decisions that you make affect them too

And efficiency is created by collective rules

See, you’re following a line of trees on one side

And there’s another line of trees that you’re leaving behind

And the space between trees is three meters wide

It’s like watching a game of Pac-man played in rewind

And the goal is to never have to cross over trees

Just fill the open space on the block economically

And never make another planter walk over trees

‘Cause we go at different speeds, so don’t cut me off please!


If I cheat and you don’t cheat then I profit

If you cheat and I don’t cheat then you profit

So we both cheat, so we can each keep somethin’

But where did all the non-cheaters go?


If you don’t cheat, and I don’t, the team profits

And people on teams can achieve some deep pockets

The cheats won’t beat us as long as we keep watchin’

So if you cheat, we’re gonna know


It’s like a sophisticated game of follow the leader

Where the lead player changes every couple of meters

And everybody’s watching for cheaters, if you’re awful eager

To plant the soft easy ground, then we’ll call you a “creamer”

‘Cause there’s rocks and fallen trees and piles of branches

And swamps and weeds, and nice lines of trenches

And it’s easy for opportunists to try to take advantage

Of co-operative units to advance their own interests

So how do we regulate? Hmm, in several ways

But reputation is the most effective way

We swim in a sea of gossip, and we punish reprobates

With the threat of the loss of their option to participate

We got groups within groups, the truck is a six pack

But a lot of people like to work in pairs so they can chit chat

And we live in camps of several dozen who interact

On a daily basis, yeah, it’s quite a mish mash

And sometimes we seem to move with a group mind

Like a flock of birds, a school of fish, or a pride of lions

But that’s just the illusion of top-down design

Welcome to sociobiology, the new science

The coordination comes from simple local rules

That combine to produce the most cogent moves


At multiple levels, from genes to social groups

The same way your neurons compose you


If I cheat and you don’t cheat then I profit

If you cheat and I don’t cheat then you profit

So we both cheat, so we can each keep somethin’

But where did all the non-cheaters go?


If you don’t cheat, and I don’t, the team profits

And people on teams can achieve some deep pockets

The cheats won’t beat us as long as we keep watchin’

So if you cheat, we’re gonna know


It’s the prisoner’s dilemma, you’ve been charged with a crime

But you get off scot free if you snitch and drop dime

And if your partner snitches on you, you’re knocked for life

So you both snitch, and you both do hard time

If only you had some kind of “code of the streets”

Some way to punish cheats – you could both go free

Ironically, the challenge is acting pro-socially

So we probably shouldn’t model it with cut-throat thieves

The point is about where your interests lie

If you’re locked up, well then they’re just outside

But in modern society we live cooperative lives

And cooperatives are the best place to catch free rides

So who’s “pimping the system” and who’s snitchin’?

In game theory terms, “snitchin’” means defection

From a collective, along with the loss of its protection

It’s the “tragedy of the commons” the hip-hop edition

‘Cause a gangster whose motto is “stop snitchin’

Is a snitch from the perspective of honest citizens

And the Kyoto accord is a dilemma for prisoners

Of this planet, and those who block it are snitches

But the system only works if the members see an active

Distribution of benefits, and graduated sanctions

Just like the tree-planters, ‘cause whatever the endeavor

Life is just an iterated prisoner’s dilemma


If I cheat and you don’t cheat then I profit

If you cheat and I don’t cheat then you profit

So we both cheat, so we can each keep somethin’

But where did all the non-cheaters go?


If you don’t cheat, and I don’t, the team profits

And people on teams can achieve some deep pockets

The cheats won’t beat us as long as we keep watchin’

So if you cheat, we’re gonna know


The prisoner’s dilemma is part cooperation

And part competition, it’s an elegant model

For the evolution of social behaviour

It’s a cross between “turn the other cheek”

And “an eye for an eye”

And the better we understand it

The better our chances of surviving

So how do you punish cheats, huh?

Oh, you don’t punish cheats?

Shame on you! Shame!


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Lyrics by Baba Brinkman

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