
Aaron Swartz: What Happens in The Dark Knight - zatara
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/tdk
======
philh
> The Joker scares the city onto its two ferries. Once the ferries are in the
> middle of the water, he cuts their power and gives them both a button to
> blow up the other ferry, thereby constructing a prisoner’s dilemma (one boat
> is filled with real prisoners). The passengers discuss and vote. One of the
> prisoners makes a Ulysses pact and credibly commits by tossing the detonator
> overboard.

This isn't actually a prisoner's dilemma. In a PD, both players decide
simultaneously, and your payoff depends on both choices. In this, your payoff
simply depends on who defects first, with the caveat (which turns out to be
false) that if nobody defects you both die.

(If you assume both boats decide simultaneously whether to defect or not, it
still isn't a PD. The payoff matrix looks like 1,1 / 1,0 / 0,1 / 0,0 if nobody
dies when they both cooperate: it's not a PD because defecting doesn't
increase your score. If everyone dies when you both cooperate, the payoff
matrix is 0,0 / 1,0 / 0,1 / 0,0: utility is not maximised by both players
cooperating.)

Nor is tossing the detonator a credible commitment, in game theory terms,
unless the other boat sees it.

~~~
Roxolan
It's actually more complicated than that. You value saving the lives of people
on the other boat (albeit much less than you value your own), there are "third
options" with risks but interesting payoffs that are worth considering
(disabling the bomb, stealthily jumping into the water...), and the longer you
delay, the more likely it is that a deus ex machina (Batman, a stealth bomb
disposal specialist...) will show up and offer you maximum payoff on a silver
platter. Indeed that's what ends up happening in the movie.

(Of course this isn't a practical approach, since the problem is likely to
solve itself long before I'm done formalizing it.)

------
Roxolan
>it never stops to notice that the Joker is actually the hero. [...] his
various games only have one innocent casualty

Blowing up a major hospital (even an evacuated one - at very short notice I
might add) or having firefights in the streets does cause casualties, even if
none are shown on-screen.

For that matter, the joker WANTED more casualties, as outright stated in the
ferries incident. A failed mass murderer is not a better role model than a
successful one.

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whit537
"Thus Master Wayne is left without solutions. Out of options, it’s no wonder
the series ends with his staged suicide." :`(

[Edit to note that this is his final blog post, per
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047440> .]

~~~
tfb
I noticed that too. That seemed to be a recurring concept in Aaron's work. It
must have been weighing heavily on his mind for a long time.

Rest in peace, brother. Your efforts will not have been in vain.

~~~
whit537
After following Aaron's career for a decade, I just interacted with him
directly for the first time four days ago, in what seems to have been his last
day on Twitter. :`(

------
va9
"I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office
life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. I
thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday
morning, I was asked to resign."

From <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget>

------
manojlds
I don't know if I should admire Nolan or Swartz after reading this.

~~~
mistercow
Did you see The Dark Knight Rises? You should definitely admire Swartz, not
Nolan.

~~~
brown9-2
care to elaborate on that?

~~~
mistercow
It seems like Nolan used to make interesting movies that, while not always
great film, at least had something unusual and interesting about them.
_Memento_ , for example, wasn't the most amazing masterpiece in the history of
cinema, but it was solid, and the backwards-chronology as a narrative device
was compelling.

But increasingly, Nolan's films are trending towards the dumbed down, using
shallow and boring twists in place of actually interesting writing and
direction. It seems to be a profitable strategy, and I can't blame the guy for
liking money, but it's also sad to watch.

~~~
fusiongyro
Oh please.

