From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:07:30 +0800
To: Hallam-Baker <hallam@ai.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: Responding to Pre-dawn Unannounced Ninja Raids
In-Reply-To: <31F3D20C.167E@ai.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <199607221917.PAA12611@jekyll.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Hallam-Baker writes:
> As a computer scientist I would have thought you would have been 
> up on the idea of adding memory to game theory interactions. In such
> cases the optimal outcome can turn out very differently than in the
> standard model. 

Memory is the only way that things like iterated prisoner's dilemmas
become interesting.

> The fact that the US and the USSR did manage to negotiate disarmament
> despite the standard game theory predictions shows that the system
> is somewhat more complex than Perry's ideological view.

I'm afraid, Phill, that you didn't read what I said. Unilateral
disarmament is stupid. Multilateral is not necessarily stupid.

> >Oh, and don't give us stuff about how humans are above evolutionary
> >pressures or nonsense like that, because we aren't any more above such
> >pressures than we are above the laws of physics.
> 
> The "laws" of social scienst are not the "laws of physics".

Try creating a breed of Humans that don't want to have children and
see how many generations you can get them to live for.

Try creating a breed of Humans that like walking in front of cars and
see how long they last.

There is a reason humans do things like agressively defending their
children with their lives if need be. There is a reason humans resort
to violence when their place in the gene pool is threatened.

Some of this stuff is plumb obvious to anyone with half a brain,
Phill.

Perry