From: "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu> Subject: M-I: Rahul on game theory Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 15:22:11 -0500 () Rahul, Fair enough about your third post. I should have figured. I agree that the free rider problem is an area that game theory might say something about. Indeed, there is a fairly large literature on that, of considerably varying quality. As for your otherwise condescending remarks about the tit-for-tat solution to the extended prisoner's dilemma game, I have a question. Before Axelrod did his tests, was it obvious common sense that tit-for-tat would end up doing so well? I think not. It is rather neat that once that was learned, the strategy can be fairly easily explained in a common sense way. I argued that was a virtue of it. But it was not obvious ahead of time on either highly mathematical/analytical grounds or on just plain common sense grounds that it would be. BTW, of course it is appropriate for a physicist to be commenting on dismal science. After all, without physicists there would have been no Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Barkley Rosser -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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