On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 10:50:06PM +1300, LizR wrote: > On 20 January 2014 22:39, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: > > > The point about acting randomly is that clearly you are not optimising > > your utility. You a choosing something other than the optimum action, > > so are behaving irrationally by definition. Yet, it could be a > > beneficial strategy to do so, for all the reasons raised (fooling your > > opponents, making a timely decision, and so on). > > > > Sorry to be dense, but I still don't see this. When I say "acting > randomly", I assume we don't mean just doing anything, deciding to go > swimming in the arctic or declaring yourself to be Napoleon, I assume we > mean picking one of a number of options that appear to have equal utility. > > Let's say we're playing scissors-paper-rock. The best strategy - the one > that gives you the best chance of winning at least half the time - is to > choose randomly. Anyone who doesn't choose randomly is open to having their > moves predicted, and losing more often than they otherwise would. So in > this case acting randomly is rational... isn't it? >
A rational player is at extreme disadvantage in the game of scissors-paper-rock, as they will be unable to choose the optimal action. Think what Spock would do - most likely he'd give up in disgust after a few milliseconds. The other fictional character I can think of is the computer in "War Games" "A curious game. The only winning strategy is not to play." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHWjlCaIrQo). Of course one can augment a rational agent with a random choice in the event of tied choices. I don't think that is usally done in the literature, though. But in the case of choosing between a choice that optimises the utility and one that doesn't, a rational agent _must_ choose the optimal one - even if strategically this can lead to exploitation by competitors. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
