Re: Game Theory and its Relevance to Cypherpunks
At 03:21 AM 7/21/96 -0700, Llywarch Hen wrote:
What Timothy May espouses is not the appearance of craziness but actual insanity itself.
The best way to convince others you are crazy is to actually be crazy. More practically, if you organize your nuclear forces so that any serious war is likely to escalate uncontrollably into the battle of armageddon, regardless of your intentions and desires, which is how the American government organized its nuclear forces in Europe, then you can pretty much guarantee you will not have to face a serious war. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd@echeque.com
James A. Donald wrote:
The best way to convince others you are crazy is to actually be crazy.
More practically, if you organize your nuclear forces so that any serious war is likely to escalate uncontrollably into the battle of armageddon, regardless of your intentions and desires, which is how the American government organized its nuclear forces in Europe, then you can pretty much guarantee you will not have to face a serious war.
How did they organize them? It is interesting. - Igor.
James A. Donald wrote:
At 03:21 AM 7/21/96 -0700, Llywarch Hen wrote:
What Timothy May espouses is not the appearance of craziness but actual insanity itself.
The best way to convince others you are crazy is to actually be crazy.
More practically, if you organize your nuclear forces so that any serious war is likely to escalate uncontrollably into the battle of armageddon, regardless of your intentions and desires, which is how the American government organized its nuclear forces in Europe, then you can pretty much guarantee you will not have to face a serious war.
This was, of course, the logic behind the alliances before World War I. It was obviously suicidal to start a war with any of the major powers, but it happened anyway. Game theory is the proper tool to analyze this sort of scenario, but the tendency for non-ideal behavior has to be factored in. Brinksmanship is another aspect of game theory, too... Jon Leonard
participants (3)
-
ichudov＠algebra.com -
James A. Donald -
Jon Leonard