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Re: [Phys-l] About the "why" and "how" questions.



At 11:47 -0600 12/24/2010, brian whatcott wrote:

This is a cut of the Springer CiteuLike abstract:

"Here's something to do at your next dinner party after the guests have
wined and dined, tell them you're auctioning off a dollar--a plain U.S.
one-dollar bill. But set the rules as follows: while the winner gets
the dollar, the second-highest bidder must also pay the amount of his
last bid, even though he gets nothing. If you can get a single one-cent
bid, chances are the auction will go to fifty cents. If someone bids
fifty-one cents, bidding will almost certainly reach a dollar. If it
goes to one dollar and one cent, the sky's the limit. No one wants to
be the second-highest bidder. Afterwards the bidders say they spent so
much because their opponent "went crazy," which is a little like saying
"the fight started when he hit me back." Everyone has gotten into
situations that resembled the dollar auction--where they devoted way too
much effort to something not worth the commitment, because the cost of
giving up was worse. Why do we act this way? How can we recognize
these traps before we're in too deep? Is there such a thing as rational
behavior, and if so, how do we use it to our advantage? Hungarian
mathematician Laszlo Mero introduces us to the basics of John
vonNeumann's game theory and shows how it illuminates such aspects of
human psychology as altruism, competition, and politics. Mero covers
such concepts as zero-sum games; Prisoner's Dilemma; the game of Chicken
(played with cars in Rebel Without A Cause), where logic proves that
the rational strategy is to be irrational; how to be kind to your lover
through game theory; and when the Golden Rule works and when it leads to
disaster....

Yes. Mérö analyzes that game in some detail in the book. I'd never heard of it, but his results are most interesting, and something of a reflection on just how intelligent we humans really are.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
mailto:hugh@ieer.org
mailto:haskellh@verizon.net

It isn't easy being green.

--Kermit Lagrenouille