Comment on Nash Equilibria and Schelling Points

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 19:33:30 GMT

If I have a choice of whether or not to perform an action A, and I believe that performing A will harm agent X and will not in and of itself benefit me, and I credibly commit to performing A unless X provides me with some additional value V, I would consider myself to be threatening X with A unless they provide V. Whether that is a threat of blackmail or some other kind of threat doesn't seem like a terribly interesting question.

Edit: my earlier thoughts on extortion/blackmail, specifically, here.

Discuss