Last week we started to model some basic game theory and (eventually) succeeded in getting tit-for-tat to dominate (checkout out the working simulation here).
This week we are going to explore game theory in more depth and see how the same initial conditions lead to different outcomes for the three games thought to align most with political theory - the Prisoner's Dilemma, the Stag Hunt, and the Snow Drift.
We'll then finish up by modeling a three player game and see which strategies work best in the zombie apocalypse.
He, therefore, that breaketh his covenant, and consequently declareth that he thinks he may with reason do so, cannot be received into any society that unite themselves for peace and defence but by the error of them that receive him; nor when he is received be retained in it without seeing the danger of their error; which errors a man cannot reasonably reckon upon as the means of his security: and therefore if he be left, or cast out of society, he perisheth; and if he live in society, it is by the errors of other men, which he could not foresee nor reckon upon, and consequently against the reason of his preservation; and so, as all men that contribute not to his destruction forbear him only out of ignorance of what is good for themselves.
-- Hobbes Leviathan Ch 15
If it was a matter of catching a deer, each man well understood that in that case he should keep his position faithfully. But if a hare happened to go past within reach of one of them, undoubtedly he went after it without scruple and, having caught his prey, worried very little about making his companions lose theirs.
-- Rousseau, A Discourse on Inequality II
Two neighbours may agree to drain a meadow, which they possess in common; because it is easy for them to know each others mind; and each must perceive, that the immediate consequence of his failing in his part, is, the abandoning the whole project. But it is very difficult, and indeed impossible, that a thousand persons should agree in any such action; it being difficult for them to concert so complicated a design, and still more difficult for them to execute it; while each seeks a pretext to free himself of the trouble and expence, and would lay the whole burden on others.
-- Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature §3.2.7
Anything on game theory so you can contribute to the discussion. Feel free to recommend your own paper in the issues tab.