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The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

technologyreview.com

11–20 of 31 posts

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#11

A separate example of very advanced strategies in the simplest game: Rock Paper Scissors Programming Competition http://www.rpscontest.com Personally I think it is somehow ahead of these academic researches in some sense.

Except it is not difficult to prove that you can't win in expectation against a random RPS player. The programming competition is only fun because the players are nonrandom.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#12
post #7

Good old rock, nothing beats rock. Doh!

Do you actually think this comment is intelligent or otherwise improves the discussion others are having about this topic? For one, I am pretty much completely lost in terms of what this article is saying, and inane commentary does not help in the process of understanding.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#13
"Nevertheless, in a single game, the best strategy is to snitch because it guarantees that you don't get the maximum jail term. "

Huh? That isn't correct is it? Snitching is best because it gives the highest payout regardless of what the other person does (snitching strictly dominates not snitching).

If the other does not snitch and you do, you go free. If the other person does snitch, you should as well, because it gives you 3 months instead of 6.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#15

This is roughly the 5th article on a "Revolution in Game Theory" that I've seen and not a single one of them has successfully described what the so called revolutionary strategy is. Here is a direct link to a PDF of a paper defining the Zero Determinant Strategy. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1208.2666v1.pdf I don't really understand it. Neither do journalists it seems. Can someone explain?

As far as I understand, the basic idea is to cooperate with a probability that depends on whether your opponent cooperated in the previous round. (Actually there are 4 probabilities because the strategy also depends on whether you cooperated in the last round.)

For example, you might say that you will cooperate with prob 75% if I cooperated, or 25% otherwise.

By choosing the probabilities carefully this can turn the game into one where the more I choose to cooperate, then the better I do - but you will always outperform me (unless I choose to always defect when we both end up equally lost).

Feels similar to only proposing win-lose business deals. You will never "lose" but will soon run out of people willing to deal.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#16
So, this paper is not really demonstrating anything against the standard game theory applied to the prisoner's dilemma.

In a single game, the proposition of the dilemma still holds true. The best solution is if both don't talk.

In an iterative game, then things change.. but that's pretty obvious. So not sure what is so revoluationary about this paper.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#17
post #13

" Nevertheless, in a single game, the best strategy is to snitch because it guarantees that you don't get the maximum jail term. " Huh? That isn't correct is it? Snitching is best because it gives the highest payout regardless of what the other person does (snitching strictly dominates not snitching). If the other does not snitch and you do, you go free. If the other person does snitch, you should as well, because it…

You describe exactly what that sentence says...

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#18
post #8

This is roughly the 5th article on a "Revolution in Game Theory" that I've seen and not a single one of them has successfully described what the so called revolutionary strategy is. Here is a direct link to a PDF of a paper defining the Zero Determinant Strategy. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1208.2666v1.pdf I don't really understand it. Neither do journalists it seems. Can someone explain?

Actually, the original paper is this one: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/16/1206569109.full... Here is an description of the result and its implications http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2012/07/zerodeterminant_...

Wow. Not long ago I was trying to test whether an idea for a certain kind of online interaction would work out the way I hoped. I built a simulation with agents that evolved their strategies, trying to optimize their own outcomes.

Maybe that's not such a good test after all.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#19
I'm getting pretty tired of technology review extremely poor explanations for science discoveries. I only know vaguely more than I did when I started reading the article. When I got to the bottom I didn't know if I should be excited or not.

Re: The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

#20
post #8

This is roughly the 5th article on a "Revolution in Game Theory" that I've seen and not a single one of them has successfully described what the so called revolutionary strategy is. Here is a direct link to a PDF of a paper defining the Zero Determinant Strategy. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1208.2666v1.pdf I don't really understand it. Neither do journalists it seems. Can someone explain?

Actually, the original paper is this one: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/16/1206569109.full... Here is an description of the result and its implications http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2012/07/zerodeterminant_...

I found the second link you posted when I went looking for clarification. The takeaway for me was that zero-determinant strategies do tend to win games, in that the end score of someone playing a ZD strategy is usually higher than that of someone playing a different strategy, but that both scores in such games tend to be low. Against a basic tit-for-tat player, the ZD player will win by a very small margin but the game will largely consist of mutual defections. Basic tit-for-tat, as the author points out, is never a 'winning' strategy--it always either ties or loses. Its strength isn't that it wins, but rather that it limits its losses. That characteristic of tit-for-tat is as effective against a ZD strategy as it is against any other strategy.
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