[lbo-talk] more on the econ Nobel

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Mon Oct 10 12:18:06 PDT 2005


Doug wrote:
>[game theory always struck me as mostly empty wankery - can someone
>convince me to the contrary? not to be too literal-minded, but what
>town has five identical tire stores, anyway?]

"Empty wankery" it is. What can be said for a "theory" whose proudest accomplishment--the "Prisoner's Dilemma"--is patently self-contradictory because it postulates that a *rational* prisoner will believe anything said by the imprisoners? Or for a theory whose principal challenge--demonstration of whether a completely rational game (chess) has a determinate solution (of the problem whether, with best strategy, white wins, black wins, or both draw) remains after 60 years without even an approach to a solution. Or for a "theory" of games that has nothing whatever to say about complex real-world games like contract bridge or poker? Or a "theory" that claims to contribute to a problem--rational oligopolistic behavior-- already fully analyzed (by Robinson and by Chamberlain) 75 years ago? Oh yes, game theory does work on tic-tac-toe.

Shane Mage

"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.

When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)



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