Game Theory, huh...

            Dr. Len Fisher, a physicist, called as the man who put the fizz into physics by the Entertainment Weekly, turned his attention to the science of cooperation in his lively and thought-provoking book. He showed the people how the modern science of game theory had helped biologists to understand the evolution of cooperation in nature, and investigated how we might apply those lessons to our own society. He shed light on the problem of global cooperation through a series of experiments that took him from the polite confines of an English dinner party to crowded supermarkets, congested Indian roads, and the wilds of outback of Australia. The outcomes of these are sometimes hilarious, sometimes alarming, but always revealing.

Game theory is a mathematical science and many presentations can be intimidating. It studies how we maximize gain in the competitive situations, assuming that the self-interest of the people controls them why they make decisions. It should be made accessible. Dr. Len Fisher took us on a wry, fascinating tour of one of the most momentous sciences of our time.

This book is refreshingly informal and an insightful account of key ideas in game theory. Dr. Fisher started by demonstrating the limits of game theory: What’s best for you isn’t always what’s best for everyone else, and that discrepancy can ultimately undermine your own self-interest. He gave many examples of games that post harrowing choices for their players. Some of these examples are from his own life. He showed how game theory helped the players extricate themselves from the situations which are likely to cause anger or grief. This book is a popular science that connects the game theory and the everyday situations, and suggests several strategies for achieving the cooperation.

The first chapter of this book is entitled “trapped in the matrix”. This chapter mainly describes the Prisoner’s dilemma and gives the negative connotation that the Nash equilibrium is a logical trap. The second chapter is picked up from the game “I cut and you choose”. This chapter offers a nice introduction to the concepts of minimax and fair division. Dr. Fisher illuminated fair division with anecdotes like how he got into 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 knew that what he realized was an application of the minimax principle. Dr. Fisher discussed the principle of equal division of the contested sum. The third chapter is about seven of the most interesting game theory problems, in which Dr. Fisher aptly dubbed “the seven deadly dilemmas.” In this chapter, Dr. Fisher offered a great summary of such problems as the free rider issue and the game of chicken. The fourth chapter is a humorous one. This is about the game “rock, paper, scissors.” 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. The fifth through the eighth chapters are all about cooperation: on how we can achieve trust, bargain effectively, and change the game to avoid the “trap” of the Prisoner’s dilemma and other undesirable outcomes.

The good news is that human beings are much more cooperative than some of us might assume. Dr. Fisher uses game theory to show how cooperative behaviors have evolved to escape the traps created by selfishness, and how cooperation persists even in the most difficult circumstances. He suggests employing the same strategy to solve territorial disputes between countries.

As one might expect, many of Dr. Fisher’s game-theory solutions seem a trifle abstract and idealistic: What happens when three people want cake? Even so, this book is a wonderfully entertaining introduction to the game theory and the science of cooperation.