Rock, Paper, Scissors

          

           “Rock, Paper, Scissors is a refreshingly informal as well as insightful account of key ideas in game theory. Len Fisher gives many examples, several from his own life, of games that post harrowing choices for their players. He shows how game theory not only illuminates the consequences of these choices but also may help the players extricate themselves from situations likely to cause anger or grief.” 

                                    – Steven J. Brams, New York University, author of Mathematics and Democracy

Because my mind is so clouded, and I don't know how to start this, I decided to search for blogs about this book, One blogger have said that "Rock, Paper, Scissors is a popular science book that connects  game theory to everyday situations and suggests several strategies for achieving cooperation". Fisher shows how the modern science of game theory has helped biologists to understand the evolution of cooperation in nature, and investigates how we might apply those lessons to our own society.

What's great about this book is that it is not that dull to read, and it is not purely about mathematics. Whenever something is being tackled about, it will be more interesting if it would be connected to real life situations, like what Fisher did.

The first chapter of the book describes the Prisoner’s dilemma and gives the negative connotation that the Nash equilibrium is a logical trap. The matrix graphics are not that illuminating either. The second chapter offers a nice introduction to the concepts of minimax and fair division. Fisher illuminates fair division with anecdotes like how he got in trouble as a kid shooting fireworks, and as a consequence had to yield fireworks with his brother. The answer he intuitively arrived to as a kid was what he know realizes was an application of the minimax principle. Chapter three is about seven of the most interesting game theory problems, which Fisher aptly dubs “the seven deadly dilemmas.” Here Fisher offers a great summary of such problems as the free rider issue and the game of chicken. Chapter four is a humorous one, and is about the game “rock, paper, scissors.” It’s amusing how rock, paper, scissors can be used in conflict resolution. The reason is that the game has no pure strategy that dominates the others. Hence, situations and games which seem to be at a standstill can be solved by adding strategies and converting them to rock-paper-scissors situations. Finally, chapters’ five to eight are all about cooperation: how we can achieve trust, bargain effectively, and change the game to avoid the “trap” of the Prisoner’s dilemma and other undesirable outcomes. I won’t go into detail, as the main fun points are similar in nature to the other chapters: the narratives and interesting examples from science.