Day 21

Today I finished my application for the Duke November 1 deadline.

I read about Conflict and Cooperation.

Game theory is considered the study of rational behavior. The problem is: how can we determine what is rational? There is nothing less rational about one person's desires than another. There is nothing more rational about me wanting to throw away every DVD I own as opposed to just throwing away one DVD. Therefore, rational behavior is determined as consistency. In this way, when you act consistently you are interpreted as trying to maximize the value of your utility. Utility is what allows players to assign a numerical value to every possible outcome. This goes away when a person does not act consistently.

One issue that Survivor players have to deal with while playing the game is given a specific situation: there are two people, neither of whom are in your alliance. One flip flops all over the place, sometimes voting with you and your allies, the other one having never voted with you before. You have the numbers to vote out either player. What should a person do in this situation?

Many would say you should take out the person who has never voted with you before, because at least the possibility exists for cooperation with the other player. However, in order to produce a playing field with the most rational players, which means their actions would be the easiest to predict, you should take out the wild card.

That is why this season, season 31, has a wild card in a girl named Abi Maria. She flips every single vote, but people are still trying to work with her. THIS IS BAD. She should be everyone's target, because her behavior is unpredictable and impossible to plan around.