Prisoner's Dilemma: John Von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb

Mostly a bio of John Von Neumann, it also goes into some depth on the history of the early days of the Cold War, and the RAND Corporation in particular. As an overview of game theory for non-mathematical people, it's excellent. It does wander around a bit, and is a bit dated in discussions of AI and computer gaming. Nevertheless a worthwhile read, adding historical context to some of today's prisoner's dilemmas.

中文書名有點誤導，副標題漏了"原子彈難題"，害我閱讀時一頭霧水：怎麼談了那麼多有關冷戰和原子彈的東西？如原書名所示，此書分成三大部分：賽局理論、馮紐曼生平、以及美蘇冷戰，且都只是蜻蜓點水。

想深入研究賽局理論的讀者可以略過此書，它只談到基礎理論而已。雖然作者表示囚犯兩難理論可以應用在許多研究上，他舉的例子只顯示某些問題存在囚犯兩難現象，如何應用仍是無解（書中未談。）拿來當美蘇冷戰史來看看還算有趣，但作者想談的東西太多且亂，文章編輯有待加強。

Poundstone skillfully weaves together a report on the life of John von Neumann and an account of the development of game theory and its application to the study of warfare in the early years of the Cold War. Some keen observations contained herein: naiveté often accompanies a faith in the beauty and simplicity of abstract equations; rationality is an ideal, without real-world correspondence; and, counter-intuitively, irrational cooperation is a prerequisite for the orderly life of societies.

Chicken readily translates into an abstract game. Strictly speaking, game theory’s chicken dilemma occurs at the last possible moment of a game of highway chicken. Each driver has calculated his reaction time and his car’s turning radius (which show more are assumed identical for both cars and both drivers); there comes a moment of truth in which each must decide whether or not to swerve. The decision is irrevocable and must be made in ignorance of the other driver’s decision. There is no time for one driver’s last-minute decision to influence the other driver’s decision. In its simultaneous, life or death simplicity, chicken is one of the purest examples of von Neumann’s concept of a game.

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Part Von Neumann biography, part cold war history, part Game Theory primer; all fun.

Good introduction to game theory. Not very focused thought. Jumps between biography of von Neuman, history of RAND corporation and game theory.

Great mixture of history and game theory, surprisingly exicting.

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