On Sat, 25 Aug 2001, Tim May wrote:
RATIONAL ACTORS
The obvious point is that rational actors never pay more for untraceability than they get back in perceived benefits. Someone will not pay $1000 for privacy/untraceability technology or tools that only nets them $500 in perceived benefits.
They won't spend $1.00 in tools to net them 10 cents in perceived benefits.
If it's restricted to a single opportunity, yes. If one adds the boundary condition of repeatability your thesis comes apart. Consider the cost of using an anonymizing layer which is for almost all players equal. The point to be gained here is there are different anonymizing layers. Each with their own specific characteristics. A mouse doesn't look like an elephant for a reason. Now if the anonymizing layer is digital, for example, the cost is about the same across the board, irrespective of other source/sink magnitudes. In those cases for example, assuming a higher resourced player was involved would mean the cost of enforcement would go up. They would have resources to spend on additional, and distinct, anonymizing layers that lower layered players wouldn't have available. Most rational actors, instead of measuring 'perceived benefits', will only pay a certain percentage of their gains to reap those gains. One can then break the various layers (eg 10%, 20%, 30%, ...) into characteristic behaviours. It's also worth noting that a specific relation between the selection of that percentage and how much the player already has is present. A Markov Chain of behaviours would be a more apt model. Not everyone faced with the same numbers will make the same choice. There is a limit to 'rationality'. -- ____________________________________________________________________ natsugusa ya...tsuwamonodomo ga...yume no ato summer grass...those mighty warriors'...dream-tracks Matsuo Basho The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------