Discussion Notes
Poundstone, Prisoner's Dilemma

Chapter 1

1. Where (and when) did the basic idea of game theory originate? (see also chapter 3)
2. What is a "dilemma?" What does Poundstone mean by the "nuclear dilemma?"

Chapter 3

1. What do you think the Kriegspiel tradition has to do with game theory?
2. Poundstone says that looking at games as tables is "far more useful in game theory" (p. 47) than looking at them as trees. What does he mean by this?
3. What does the idea of mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium have to do with the gene for sickle-cell anemia?
4. What did von Neumann mean by the term "n-person games"?

Chapter 4

1. What role did game theory play in the second World War?
2. What role did game theory play in thinking about nuclear weapons in the Cold War?

Chapter 5

1. What was the nature and purpose of the RAND Corporation?

Chapter 6

1. What does the title of the game "prisoner's dilemma" (henceforth PD) refer to? Who invented it?
2. What did Flood think was demonstrated by his PD experiments at RAND?
3. What was Nash's critique of this interpretation?
4. Poundstone says that the PD "defies commonsense reasoning" and that it "remains a negative result -- a demonstration of what's wrong with the theory, and indeed, the world" (123). What does he mean by this? How else might a game theorist interpret the PD?
5. Describe how each of the following arguments might be offered as a "solution" to the PD. Is this a good argument?
   • In real life, you feel guilty if you defect in a PD. Hence you don't defect.
   • If both players are rational, both will arrive at the same conclusion as to what the "rational" strategy is. As a rational actor, then, each should choose Cooperate as the rational strategy, because CC makes them better off than DD.
   • Defecting cannot be rational, because if everyone decided that way, everyone would always be worse off.
   • Defecting is not clearly the best strategy, because the PD is a paradox: which strategy is best falls into a "gray area of logic".
   • People should "solve" the PD by simply forming the habit of always cooperating.
   • Each player can decide to cooperate provided the other player cooperates. If all players decide this, then all will end up cooperating.

Chapter 7

1. What did game theory have to do with the idea of "preventive war?"

Chapter 8

1. What criticisms of game theory does Poundstone discuss? Are these good arguments?

Chapter 9

1. What efforts were made toward disarmament or arms control during the 1950s? With what results, and why?