Wei_Dai comments on Open Thread: June 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Morendil 01 June 2010 06:04PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 02 June 2010 04:15:17AM 6 points [-]

Are you saying that classical game theorists would model the button-pushing game as one-shot PD? Why would they fail to notice the repetitive nature of the game?

Comment author: khafra 02 June 2010 01:37:51PM 2 points [-]

I'd be far more willing to believe in game theorists calling for defection on the iterated PD than in mathematicians steering mainstream culture.

However, with the positive-sum nature of this game, I'd expect theorists to go with Schelling instead of Nash; and then be completely disregarded by the general public who categorize it under "physical ways of causing pleasure" and put sexual taboos on it.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 02 June 2010 08:58:19AM *  1 point [-]

The theory says to defect in the iterated dilemma as well (under some assumptions).

Comment author: cousin_it 02 June 2010 12:18:05PM *  3 points [-]

Here's what the theory actually says: if you know the number of iterations exactly, it's a Nash equilibrium for both to defect on all iterations. But if you know the chance that this iteration will be the last, and this chance isn't too high (e.g. below 1/3, can't be bothered to give an exact value right now), it's a Nash equilibrium for both to cooperate as long as the opponent has cooperated on previous iterations.