"math is hard!"
x-posted in part from a flame war in polyamory
although there are really quite a few people out there who just don't like to do math... the understanding and implementation of game theory does require a certain degree of mathematical familiarity (even if only on an intuitive level), and some people just don't like to do any sort of number-crunching... which is ok, but they're not going to be the sort of people who will want to speak with me utilizing the language of game theory (not that game thoery itself doesn't take that into account).
i often get the feeling that i really haven't communicated what i mean by game theory... There's a brief summary of game theory in terms of it's application to ethics, in a this article by Carl Sagan, entitled, "A New Way To Think About Rules To Live By," which ends with the following summary of the most basic non-zero sum game, The Prisoner's Dilemma:
` ` The Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple game. Real life is considerably more complex. But its central lessons are striking: Be friendly at first meetings. Do not envy. Be generous; forgive your enemy if he forgives you. Be neither a tyrant or a patsy. Retaliate proportionately to an intentional injury (within the constraints of the rule of law). And make your behavior fairly (although not perfectly) clear and consistent. What would the world be like if more of us, individuals as well as nations, lived by these rules? ' '
reciprocal altruism is a particular strategy of evolutionary cooperation that can be useful when analyzing human behaviour in terms of game theory, or any number of other sociological models (again, the map is not the territory...)
although it is certainly one of my goals to develop relationships based on reciprocal altruism (or something similarly cooperative), this is not something that i think is achievable without some kind of enforcement guaranteeing thet your partner(s) will not defect against you, as is implied by the prisoner's dilemma.
another perspective to consider is offerred in this article by Howard Rachlin, "Altruism and Selfishness" ...considering altruism as an abstract synergy in the gestalt of human experience.
here are some further resources for the prisoner's dilemma... and don't miss Al Roth's game theory and experimental economics page (ouch, i think i hurt my brain... i'll get back to y'all on that one after i'm less math-challenged, and hopefully before i learn as much about the mathematics of game theory as john nash?)
i have attempted to explore reciprocal altruism and other forms of evolving cooperation before in my journal.
addendum 08/21/04 @ 02:45
and i will continue in my endeavour to create mutually beneficial relationships, whenever possible
although there are really quite a few people out there who just don't like to do math... the understanding and implementation of game theory does require a certain degree of mathematical familiarity (even if only on an intuitive level), and some people just don't like to do any sort of number-crunching... which is ok, but they're not going to be the sort of people who will want to speak with me utilizing the language of game theory (not that game thoery itself doesn't take that into account).
i often get the feeling that i really haven't communicated what i mean by game theory... There's a brief summary of game theory in terms of it's application to ethics, in a this article by Carl Sagan, entitled, "A New Way To Think About Rules To Live By," which ends with the following summary of the most basic non-zero sum game, The Prisoner's Dilemma:
` ` The Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple game. Real life is considerably more complex. But its central lessons are striking: Be friendly at first meetings. Do not envy. Be generous; forgive your enemy if he forgives you. Be neither a tyrant or a patsy. Retaliate proportionately to an intentional injury (within the constraints of the rule of law). And make your behavior fairly (although not perfectly) clear and consistent. What would the world be like if more of us, individuals as well as nations, lived by these rules? ' '
reciprocal altruism is a particular strategy of evolutionary cooperation that can be useful when analyzing human behaviour in terms of game theory, or any number of other sociological models (again, the map is not the territory...)
although it is certainly one of my goals to develop relationships based on reciprocal altruism (or something similarly cooperative), this is not something that i think is achievable without some kind of enforcement guaranteeing thet your partner(s) will not defect against you, as is implied by the prisoner's dilemma.
another perspective to consider is offerred in this article by Howard Rachlin, "Altruism and Selfishness" ...considering altruism as an abstract synergy in the gestalt of human experience.
here are some further resources for the prisoner's dilemma... and don't miss Al Roth's game theory and experimental economics page (ouch, i think i hurt my brain... i'll get back to y'all on that one after i'm less math-challenged, and hopefully before i learn as much about the mathematics of game theory as john nash?)
i have attempted to explore reciprocal altruism and other forms of evolving cooperation before in my journal.
addendum 08/21/04 @ 02:45
and i will continue in my endeavour to create mutually beneficial relationships, whenever possible