George,
you are, of course, absolutely correct.
That is always a weakness to the PD story, which is, at base, a really stupid
way to think about cooperation issues. It is one of those ideas which was sort
of cute at the time, got into all the text books, and has been drilled into the
heads of two generations of students, but really doesnt adequately represent
the crucial variables in the situation and should have been dropped about two
decades ago. It is a case of scientific mob thinking at its absolute worst.
The tragedy of the commons model is much clearer and avoids all the cutsy
language that has been promoted by people who know bfa about prisoners and
their dilemmas.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]
----- Original Message -----
From: George Duncan
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: 4/3/2010 3:11:29 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Slashdot Science Story | Twins' DNA Foils Police
What makes this not a Prisoner's Dilemma is there is no incentive for James to
rat on John and no incentive for John to rat on James. James and John have an
optimal strategy of stonewalling.
Poor prosecutor! Hard to see how the prosecutor can set up a Prisoner's Dilemma
here, at least without deception.
On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote:
Now here's a new twist on the Prisoner's Dilemma:
http://slashdot.org/story/10/04/03/1539224/
-- Owen
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George Duncan
georgeduncanart.com
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