

Game Theory - jcr
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory

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j2kun
I'm wondering, what perspective does philosophy add to game theory? All of the
philosophical musings at the beginning of the article seem to describe what
"moral" beings should do. This seems unrelated to what "rational" agents
_must_ do, which is one of the simpler questions of game theory. Do
philosophical arguments guide, for example, how one might design utility
functions? I have studied enough game theory and attended enough conferences
and his hasn't showed up except to argue that a definition is perhaps
reasonable (and then we wait for the elegant algorithm/analysis punchline
anyway).

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hrasyid
I think game theory isn't too concerned about how one might design utility
functions, it is mostly interested in what one should do when utility
functions are already given

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vostrocity
But the usefulness of game theory is pinned on the accuracy of utility
functions.

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porter
What are some good applications of game theory? Where is it used _usefully_ in
the real world?

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vbs_redlof
The design of online auctions and markets.

It gives some insight on how we can design bidding and pricing systems to
ensure that people only ever attempt to bid what they truly think an item is
worth, given what they know and what they think other bidders know.

The broader goals are to establish when these systems might be "incentive
compatible" (truthful bidding) and whether or not these results are robust to
variations on the assumed information structure (assumptions governing what
agents know, what they think other agents know, and so on).

For the HN crowd, it seems like the related field of algorithmic game theory
is more practical. It focuses mainly on the implementation and complexity of
various auction pricing mechanisms.

The section on 'coordination games and conventions' is also quite interesting
and related to problems in distributed computing. For instance, byzantine
fault tolerance and common knowledge of global state shares many similarities
with economic systems in which many dispersed agents with subjective beliefs
about the 'true state' of the world wish to come to some consensus over some
market equilibria or economic fundamentals such as interest rates or market
prices in the presence of faulty communication and/or strategic trading
behaviours.

In these cases, game theory may provide insights on more robust fault tolerant
designs, and economic policies that lead to stabler, and more efficient
markets.

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markbao
Any recommendations for the best online course on game theory?

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jckt
Not exactly an "online course", but these notes (used for an undergrad course
on games) I found quite readable:
[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/games/](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/games/)

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queeerkopf
I can recommend the book 'A Course in Game Theory' by Ariel Rubinstein and
Martin J. Osborne . You'll probably need some mathematical and economic
background knowledge to gain the most out of it. Note that it is more abstract
than illustrative though it is aimed at a beginner in Game Theory.

The book ist free to download after a simple registration at
[http://arielrubinstein.tau.ac.il/books.html](http://arielrubinstein.tau.ac.il/books.html)

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Gimpei
That's a good book, but a bit advanced. A little bit easier is Osborne's
Introduction to Game Theory.

On the heavier side, Game Theory by Tirole and Fudenberg is used in a lot of
graduate economics programs.

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matthewwiese
SEP is a wonderful online resource for philosophy. You can easily get lost
browsing articles for hours if you're not careful!

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the_cat_kittles
some cool subtopics-

matching theory: how to match kidney donors with patients? how to match kids
with public schools?

social choice theory: how does the voting mechanism affect the outcome? how
much weight should different parties have? how can voting mechanisms be
"gamed"?

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Zen101
Very interesting

