jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com> wrote:
My previous answer was incomplete, of course. I continue to believe that the problem is unsolveable as stated, if for no other reason than the "weight" of the negative represented by dying is not stated. It's a VERY complex problem, unless there's some trick I'm not seeing.
Jim is right. The problem with any optimization problem is when unquantifiable negatives are included. The "classic" example of this is an inventory problem. The optimal solution is minimal (or no) inventory, however there are unquantifiable negatives that arise when a customer cannot get his product when he wants it. I don't think the problem is that complex if the negative is that you get no money rather than "you die". As an aside, many game theory problems (possible including the simplified version of this one) are solvable using linear programming (and no, that is not writing C one line at a time ;-). It has been far too long since my last game theory course to consider trying to set this problem up however (I've found that I don't use either game theory or LP a whole lot in the "real world" of engineering). Clay *************************************************************************** Clay Olbon II * Clay.Olbon@dynetics.com Systems Engineer * PGP262 public key on web page Dynetics, Inc. * http://www.msen.com/~olbon/olbon.html ***************************************************************** TANSTAAFL