Game Theory As A Dark Art

Created: October 22, 2021

Game Theory As A Dark Art, by Scott Alexander.

Your garden-variety evils act against your values. Your better class of evil, like Voldemort and the folk-tale version of Satan, use your greed to trick you into acting against your own values, then grab away the promised reward at the last moment. But even demons and dark wizards can only do this once or twice before most victims wise up and decide that taking their advice is a bad idea. Game theory can force you to betray your deepest principles for no lasting benefit again and again, and still leave you convinced that your behavior was rational.

Notes

I found the Dollar Auction pretty interesting.

The Dollar Auction

  • All-pay, everyone pays regardless of whether they win (or only the top 2 bidders pay).
  • Bid a 20 GBP note.


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