Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Sunday, June 7, 2015
I Don't Always Have Fun, but When I Do, I Prefer to Have it at the Expense of Someone Else
In economics, there is a term called utility. For example, it basically means how much pleasure (or what your payout is) depending on a certain outcome. Let's say that I give you two choices. Choice A gives you a payout of 1, and your opponent a payout of 2. Choice B gives you a payout of 0, and your opponent a payout of -1. In table form, it would look like this:
So basically, you can say that if you choose A, then you both would make a lot of money. If you choose B, then you make zero, but your opponent loses money. Normal, rational people would choose A, and you can make money at no expense to others. However, if you're like some people, and like to see other people suffer more than you like to see yourself succeed, then you can choose B and essentially pay your 1 unit of potential winnings to see your opponent lose 2 units of potential earnings and also have to pay 1 unit back. It's up to you.
By the way, what I presented was called the ultimatum game. There are other forms of these types of games, if you're unaware, with various names. For example, the following is called the prisoner's dilemma, in which both parties have a choice.
In this case, you see that for the column player, choice A is always better than choice B. For the row player, the same is also true. So the Nash Equilibrium would be both people choosing A. Because in this case, there's no way to guarantee that your opponent makes less than you, so there's no way to have fun at the expense of someone else. I don't like games like this, unfortunately. They are no fun.
There's another thing that happened called the murder of Kitty Genovese. It's also something that you can solve mathematically. Look that up by yourself and tell me what you think. Basically, Kitty Genovese got murdered and no one called 911, because there were too many people. If there are more people, then there's less of a chance that someone calls 911. And that's because you think that the more people there are, the more likely it is that someone other than you will call 911. But in reality, everyone is a misanthrope and thinks this way, so no one calls 911, and a nice girl like Kitty Genovese gets murdered. But don't believe me. Just look it up.
If you're interested in learning more about this stuff, don't ask me, you should ask someone who is better at these games. I always play games irrationally, just to screw with my opponent. So beware.
| Choices | A |
|---|---|
| A | 1,2 |
| B | 0,-1 |
So basically, you can say that if you choose A, then you both would make a lot of money. If you choose B, then you make zero, but your opponent loses money. Normal, rational people would choose A, and you can make money at no expense to others. However, if you're like some people, and like to see other people suffer more than you like to see yourself succeed, then you can choose B and essentially pay your 1 unit of potential winnings to see your opponent lose 2 units of potential earnings and also have to pay 1 unit back. It's up to you.
By the way, what I presented was called the ultimatum game. There are other forms of these types of games, if you're unaware, with various names. For example, the following is called the prisoner's dilemma, in which both parties have a choice.
| Choices | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| A | -5,-5 | 0,-10 |
| B | -10,0 | -1,-1 |
In this case, you see that for the column player, choice A is always better than choice B. For the row player, the same is also true. So the Nash Equilibrium would be both people choosing A. Because in this case, there's no way to guarantee that your opponent makes less than you, so there's no way to have fun at the expense of someone else. I don't like games like this, unfortunately. They are no fun.
There's another thing that happened called the murder of Kitty Genovese. It's also something that you can solve mathematically. Look that up by yourself and tell me what you think. Basically, Kitty Genovese got murdered and no one called 911, because there were too many people. If there are more people, then there's less of a chance that someone calls 911. And that's because you think that the more people there are, the more likely it is that someone other than you will call 911. But in reality, everyone is a misanthrope and thinks this way, so no one calls 911, and a nice girl like Kitty Genovese gets murdered. But don't believe me. Just look it up.
If you're interested in learning more about this stuff, don't ask me, you should ask someone who is better at these games. I always play games irrationally, just to screw with my opponent. So beware.
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