Normal_Anomaly comments on Zendo-like Induction Game for Playing Online - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Normal_Anomaly 03 January 2011 05:16PM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 04 January 2011 01:16:17AM *  3 points [-]

One issue with Zendo that doesn't necessarily make it a great game for actually improving rationality is that the rules are made by humans, so you can use psychology to get information. For example, I was playing with my family a few nights ago and my mother guessed a certain rule, my little brother immediately said "That's not Josh's rule. it isn't elegant." And sneakier players can do even worse stuff using sidechannel attacks. In particular, how long it takes for the Master to judge whether different configurations fit the rule can give a lot of information about the rule form.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 04 January 2011 02:11:29AM 1 point [-]

Upvoted for truth. Hopefully this game will avoid those pitfalls because: 1) We've never met 2) The time it takes me to judge a rule is swamped by the time it takes me to notice somebody posted Also, using psychology to get information and improving your performance that way still requires rationality.