Michael wrote: > Again, Phil Mirowski's new book is excellent on this.
Thanks to Michael's previous reference, I read parts of the book and loved it. I am about to start reading it from cover to cover. One feeling I got from the book is that Nash equilibrium is some kind of a "paranoid schizophrenic" equilibrium. I would add masochistic to that, especially after watching some fights over the net. If the participants of those fights were not driving some pleasure from that self-inflicted pain, why would they continue doing what they are doing? They don't even realize that they are stuck in a paranoid schizophrenic/masochistic Nash equilibrium because of their love for the idea of non-cooperative rationality. They better realize that to break away from that bloody equilibrium, that is, to destabilize it, they need to make a few cooperative moves before they destroy our psychologies too. Who knows, if they take a few cooperative steps, they will even learn to derive some pleasure from cooperation and possibly help us reach a non-Nash equilibrium where, as Louis Armstrong sings in "What a Wonderful World", we all will have a decent place under the sun. For the time being, masochistically yours, Sabri
