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Game Theory: Thinking in Positive and Negative Possibilities Essay

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Ever since you were a child you have unknowingly used game theory. When your parents gave you the option to choose a candy bar, your brain started thinking of all the possibilities that depended on which candy you chose. You would think which one would taste better, make your feel better, and maybe be healthier for you. In the end, you would narrow your choices down to one piece of candy and eat it happily. Game theory is the use of theory to think through all of the positive and negative possibilities that could happen in a problem and try to maximize the positive. Game theory is not just one theory, throughout the years is has spread into six main games. These games are: zero sum games, non-zero sum games, simultaneous move games, …show more content…

Shakespeare solved his problem in his play similar to the way Cortés solved his, he killed off the prisoners, which made the opposing soldiers believe that they the need to fight to revenge the prisoners deaths. Therefore, Shakespeare successfully took away the opportunity that the soldiers might retreat and not fight them. Hobbes used game theory in another way, he thought of all the options and decided that people do not have to kill. For example, if person X claimed that person Y broke a promise or deal, person X could hire a person to hurt person Y, which would not kill anyone and it would stop Person Y from being dishonest again. A non-zero sum game is a game that has one player that wins, and the consequences will not harm the losing player. A very famous example of non-zero sum games is the Prisoner's Dilemma. The Prisoner's Dilemma was created by Robert Axelrod in 1984. This game includes two prisoners that have been arrested. They are wanted for crimes, but the police only have enough information to put the two people in jail for one year. When the police interrogate them, they hope to convince one prisoner to give away enough information to put the other prisoner in jail for 10 years. If a prisoner squeals, and the other does not, the one who talked has no jail time, while the one who was quiet has ten years in jail. If both prisoners talk, they only have three years of jail. If neither talk,

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