Prisoner's dilemma

Title:

Prisoner's dilemma

Author:

Poundstone, William, author.

ISBN:

9780385415675

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Doubleday, c1992.

Physical Description:

xi, 290 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

1. Dilemmas. The Nuclear Dilemma. John von Neumann. Prisoner's Dilemma -- 2. John Von Neumann. The Child Prodigy. Kun's Hungary. Early Career. The Institute. Klara. Personality. The Sturm und Drang Period. The Best Brain in the World -- 3. Game Theory. Kriegspiel. Who Was First? Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Cake Division. Rational Players. Games as Trees. Games as Tables. Zero-Sum Games. Minimax and Cake. Mixed Strategies. Curve Balls and Deadly Genes. The Minimax Theorem. N-Person Games -- 4. The Bomb. Von Neumann at Los Alamos. Game Theory in Wartime. Bertrand Russell. World Government. Operation Crossroads. The Computer. Preventive War -- 5. The RAND Corporation. History. Thinking About the Unthinkable. Surfing, Semantics, Finnish Phonology. Von Neumann at RAND. John Nash. The Monday-Morning Quarterback -- 6. Prisoner's Dilemma. The Buick Sale. Honor Among Thieves. The Flood-Dresher Experiment. Tucker's Anecdote. Common Sense. Prisoner's Dilemmas in Literature. Free Rider. Nuclear Rivalry -- 7. 1950. The Soviet Bomb. The Man from Mars. Urey's Speech. The Fuchs Affair. The Korean War. The Nature of Technical Surprise. Aggressors for Peace. Francis Matthews. Aftermath. Public Reaction. Was It a Trial Balloon? The MacArthur Speech. Orvil Anderson. Press Reaction. How Many Bombs? Coda -- 8. Game Theory and Its Discontents. Criticism of Game Theory. Utility and Machiavelli. Are People Rational? The Ohio State Studies -- 9. Von Neumann's Last Years. The H-Bomb. A Very Fine Tiger. The Commissioner. The Moment of Hope. Illness. Death -- 10. Chicken and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chicken. Volunteer's Dilemma. Volunteer's Dilemma Experiments. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Madman Theory -- 11. More on Social Dilemmas. Deadlock. Stag Hunt. Asymmetric Games. Justifying Cooperation. Howard's Meta-Game. Backward Induction Paradox -- 12. Survival of the Fittest. Stable Strategies. Is Defection in the Genes? Robert Axelrod. TIT FOR TAT. The Trouble with TIT FOR TAT. Artificial Selection. The Fish in the Mirror. Cooperation and Civilization. TIT FOR TAT in the Real World -- 13. The Dollar Auction. Escalation. Shubik's Dollar Auction. Dollar Auctions in Real Life. Strategies. Rational Bidding. Where Game Theory Fails. The Largest-Number Game. Feather in a Vacuum.

Personal Subject:

Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957.

Subject Term:

Mathematicians -- United States -- Biography.

Summary:

Watching players bluff in a poker game inspired John von Neumann--father of the modern computer and one of the sharpest minds of the century--to construct game theory, a mathematical study of conflict and deception. Game theory was embraced at the RAND Corporation, the think tank charged with formulating military strategy for the atomic age, and in 1950 two RAND scientists discovered the "prisoner's dilemma"--A disturbing game where two or more people may betray the common good for individual gain. The prisoner's dilemma quickly became a popular allegory of the nuclear arms race. Game theory developed into a controversial tool of public policy--alternately accused of justifying arms races and touted as the only hope of preventing them. Biographer Poundstone weaves together a biography of the brilliant and tragic von Neumann, a history of pivotal phases of the cold war, and an investigation of game theory's far-reaching influence.--From publisher description.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	510.92 VON	Searching... Unknown

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Author Notes

William Poundstone has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize. Among his seven books are "The Recursive Universe," "Labyrinths of Reason," and "Big Secrets." He has also written extensively for network television and major magazines. He lives in Los Angeles.

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Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

When it flourished in the 1950s, game theory, the construct of Hungarian-born mathematician John von Neumann (1903-1957), was the dominant metaphor for nuclear war debates. Game theorists today operate on more modest economic and organizational models but this reevaluation of game theory's development is nevertheless interesting. Poundstone's three-dimensional outline of the mathematics of game theory sketches von Neumann's life and offers game theory scenarios of Cold War history. The ``prisoner's dilemma'' is the classic model of conflict situations in which strategies leading to either individual gain or the common good are examined. Featuring much of the think tank/parlor game quality that makes game theory so seductive, Poundstone ( The Recursive Universe ) wisely restricts his discussion of von Neumann to that which serves his theme. The West's Cold War policy was formed around the structure of game theory at the RAND Corporation and other think tanks; Poundstone makes essential connections among the theory, von Newmann's politics and historical forces. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

Here's one version: You and your partner are captured. If you rat on him (``defect'') and he is silent, you get off scot-free and he gets three years--and vice versa. If you both rat on each other, you both get less lengthy sentences, two years; but if you both clam up (cooperate with each other), you get one year each. What to do? It is the dilemma posed by the prisoner's dilemma that is the theme of this latest volume from Poundstone (Labyrinths of Reason, 1988, etc.)--an intriguing exercise in point/counterpoint as Poundstone intertwines the development of game theory with a running biography of one of game theory's founders, John von Neumann. Here again are the tales of the brilliant Hungarian mathematician, the practical joker, the reckless driver and not-so- hot poker player who was a jewel in the crown of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton--and also advisor on the Manhattan Project and the hydrogen bomb, consultant at RAND, developer of the digital computer, possessor of a photographic memory, and on and on. Early in his career, von Neumann co-authored the Theory of Games and Economic Behavior with the economist Oskar Morgenstern (``one of the most influential and least-read books of the twentieth century''). Poundstone's point is that for all the beauty of the concepts and theorems derived from game theory (minimax theorem, zero-sum symmetric games, optimal strategies), real games are not played by rational players; often they are not symmetric and, if played not once but in successive rounds, may demonstrate that cooperation is the best strategy. Poundstone's examples of the nuclear-arms race and other instances of the kinds of Pyrrhic victories that can obtain in situations of mutual distrust are apt. The fact that von Neumann, a lifelong cynic, had a deathbed conversion to Catholicism not so subtly underscores the presence of paradoxes and contradictions that characterize human as opposed to mathematical behavior. (Ten b&w photographs.)

Booklist Review

When is a game not a game? When its rules guide serious thought about economics, politics, psychology, and even nuclear war. With minimal use of jargon and formulas, Poundstone invites general readers into the world of modern "game theory," a mathematical system for assessing the benefits of cooperation and the risks of betrayal in collaborative enterprises. Lest anyone dismiss these hypothetical game frameworks (with their four-by-four matrices of outcomes) as academic trifling, the author frames his exposition within the life story of John von Neumann, a powerful man of science and a key figure in the politics of the cold war. Colleague of Albert Einstein and collaborator on the Manhattan Project, von Neumann pioneered ways to calculate the dynamics of conflict and deceit. Dazzled by his mathematical prowess, presidents and generals repeatedly sought von Neumann's advice on matters of national defense. (Fortunately, they resisted his call for a preemptive strike against Russia in the early 1950s.) Poundstone's clear writing smooths the way through technical questions, but nothing eases the reader past the frightening quandaries of a nuclear world in which leading intellectuals find as many perplexities as insights in their chalkboard war games. ~--Bryce Christensen

Library Journal Review

This very readable book is partly a biography of John von Neumann, partly a nontechnical history of the branch of mathematics known as game theory, and partly a description of some of the paradoxical findings that arise from that theory. Von Neumann was a brilliant mathematician who was the major figure in the Manhattan Project and later an active public figure. Thus, those portions of the book that deal with his life are interesting and informative. Those sections that deal with game theory use no mathematics beyond simple arithmetic and are thus fascinating, thought provoking, and easily accessible to the layperson. For all biography and science collections.-- Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUNY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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