For its definition, if we look up Wikipedia
: Game theory is "the study of mathematical
models of conflict and cooperation between
intelligent rational decision-makers."
what the hell?
we don’t care about the definition, but
what we should know is that game theory is
very useful.
It can dramatically improve your way of thinking.
if you have ever watched a movie named beautiful
mind.
The man in the movie named
John F. Nash Jr. was best known for advances
in game theory, game theory all about how
to come up with a winning strategy in the
game of life — especially when you do not
know what your competitors are doing and the
choices do not always look promising.
But Dr. Nash extended the analysis beyond
zero-sum
It’s a I-win-you-lose types of games
He explains the fact in more complex situations.
All of the players could gain, or all could
lose.
Maybe you did watch this movie, here we will
give a quick look at the game in this movie.
Imagine a group of guys hang out in a bar,
when they see a gorgeous girl and her friends.
Every guy wants to get her.
Since everyone goes for her, finally, she
choice nobody.
Everyone lose.
What if they go directly for her friends and
ignore her (the gorgeous one).
In the end, everyone gets a girl.
in this case, everyone wins.
While his friends banter about which of them
would successfully woo the blonde, DR.Nash
concludes they should do the opposite: ignore
her.
“If we all go for the blonde,”he says
“we block each other and not a single one
of us is going to get her” so then we go
for her friends, but they will give us the
cold shoulder because nobody likes to be second
choice.
But what if no one goes to the blonde.
We don’t get in each other’s way and we
don’t insult the other girls.
that’s the only way we win.”
Game theory is mainly used in economics, political
science, and psychology
Most research in game theory focuses on how
groups of people interact.
How to learn game theory, in this video, we
gonna play some games.
It’s a best way to learn game theory.
Firstly we play a classic game called prisoner's
dilemma
Two members of a criminal gang are arrested
and imprisoned.
Each prisoner is in solitary confinement without
communicating with the other.
Each prisoner is given the opportunity either
to: betray the other by testifying that the
other committed the crime, or to cooperate
with the other by remaining silent.
The offer is:
so we write it down like this to make it clear.
If A and B each betray the other, each of
them serves 2 years in prison
If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will
be set free and B will serve 3 years in prison
(and vice versa)
If A and B both remain silent, both of them
will only serve 1 year in prison
it’s quite a tough choices
now let’s look another example without a
complex context and just play a game.
So we two players A and B, they want to maximize
their result value.
so , if A choice alpha and B choice alpha
they both get 0 result.
if A choice alpha and B choice belta.
A get 1 and B get minus three.
the same, if A choice belta and B choice alpha,
A get minus three and B gets 1. if they both
choice belta they both get 1.
(of course they can’t communicate)
So what will you choice, you can pause the
video and think about it. and answer is right
after…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
it seems the two strategies without a better
choice, actually, we should choice alpha,
because it’s a dominate strategy.
if we think carefully, we can find if we choice
alpha, no matter what the other person choice,
we always get a better result or equal.
for example, A choice alpha, if B choice alpha
and A get 0(0 is more than minus three).
If B choice belta, A still get 1.
So, if you choose alpha , you have a dominate
strategy.
of course, you can get a better result.
in real life, it depends on a lot of factories,
may be for some moral or future reason.
you will have a different choice.
anyway, it gives you the basic idea of how
to think in many situations.
lean more and have fun.
