
Game theory could save the world - nickb
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/07/09/scigame109.xml
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Anon84
I managed to download the PDF... maybe the site is having problems? Anyway,
you can get it from:

<http://rapidshare.com/files/128927834/nature06940.pdf.html>

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saurabh
Reminds me of this quote by Nash in the movie The Beautiful Mind

"Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity."

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sarosh
Actual paper is at: <http://www.ciul.ul.pt/~pacheco/cs.htm>

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jey
When I click the PDF link, it goes to a 404. :(

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agentbleu
It's absolutely the right playground 'game theory' to save the world. The
article seems pretty weak with regards conclusions and real observations.
Indeed the answers are much further in.

The first observation I would make is that 'diverse' is a missleading or very
loose term, actually I believe you can seperate people into about 12
archetypes and 3 sub groups.

The 2 most interesting of the 12 would be the supreme achievers and the
tyrannical controllers. Then the 3 subgroups could be summarized as follows:
80% rabbits, 10% rogues, 10% rebels.

Understanding the general nature of 'diverse' groups helps to get a better
understanding of how symbiosis is achieved (where game theory is on display at
its most elegant).

Richard Dawkings and JMS both strong believers of the 'Evolutionary stable
strategy' and this again is a concept that lends much insight into the nature
of how complex game theory leads us to symbiosis. (When I say symbiosis I am
really talking about a stable and healthy society.)

The main player in this game which is most interesting and has been emulated
by Google is Paul Erdos and the concept of the Erdos number, more widely known
as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Once one understands this concept and the nature of a linked network, or a
scale free network then it starts to come together.

The main tenets of survival past these emending disasters are relatively
simple but will be intolerable to many who currently exploit man and nature
for their own gain.

Essentially, understanding game theory and the above other aspects of this
'game' then one can only come to one conclusion, that is that the only game
that we can play to get us to a point of stability is 'Nice'. Nice = playing
fairly and not exploiting the opponents. As opposed to 'Nasty' cheating to get
ahead. Of course a really strong legal system would be needed to be built.

To boil it down to simple bullet points: The following would need to be
adopted in order to create the symbiosis that I have referred too:

A) A new legal system built from the ground up, (not the top down) that stated
as its main most fundamental laws: 1) thou shall not levy distress upon
another/nature in order to achieve success. 2) thou shall not exploit
another's distress.

B) a new monetary system that served as a loans / tax / fines / benefits
system.

c) a new political system whereby there is no central leaders (no central
inland revenue) that dictate according to being granted power based on
'democracy' or trust, rather a sort of stock market for leaders whereby voters
had constant ability to change allegiance and are not subject to fixed term
contracts of 5 years etc.

These are basic tenets that are needed to achieve an economic stable society
and are perfectly possible to implement, of corse in practice there are many
powerful players who are too busy exploiting people and the planet who would
fight vigorously to avoid such a system.

