Altrma

Altrma is a theoretical construct used in discussions of altruistic action within multi-agent systems and social policy. The term describes a class of models or frameworks designed to formalize how agents coordinate to optimize a social welfare function that incorporates both efficiency and fairness, subject to practical constraints such as information availability and strategic behavior.

Origin and scope: The word altrma blends 'altruism' with '-ma' from mechanism or model, and is used in literature to discuss balancing individual and collective interests rather than a single agent's payoff. It is not a single standardized theory but a family of approaches.

Core components include a welfare function W that aggregates utilities of agents, rules for information sharing and negotiation, incentive-compatible mechanisms to encourage cooperation, and evaluation metrics for outcomes such as equity, resilience, and robustness to manipulation.

Applications include artificial intelligence governance, resource allocation in networks, disaster response planning, and economic policy design. Researchers study how to design mechanisms that align self-interested agents with broader societal goals while maintaining efficiency and privacy.

Criticism centers on definitional ambiguity of welfare, potential for minority needs to be underrepresented, computational complexity, vulnerability to manipulation, and normative questions about who gets to decide the welfare function and constraints.

See also: altruism, mechanism design, multi-agent systems, welfare economics, AI alignment.