From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp*lib.org)
Date: Mon Jun 30 1997 - 23:33:36 MDT
> >you have to be able to identify your counterpart,
>
>
>You have to know your in the game, that your counterpart exists, but you
>don't have to identify him.
Not true. If you can't determine specifically who you are dealing with in
any iteration you can't perform the tit-for-tat strategy.
> >and rough parity has to exist
>
>
>I'm not sure what you mean by this but I'll add one, your counterpart can't
>be too clever. If your opponent's strategy is too complex it will look
random
>to you and you won't be able to play along. One good thing about tit-for-tat
>is that it's simple.
What you say is substantiated by the descriptions in the book.
But what I was talking about is that you can't be massively outgunned. It's
related to "the consequences have to matter". Cooperation as an ESS appears
to require that the entities cooperating be similar in strength and
capacity to do harm--at least within the model as described. Sharks have
little reason to cooperate with halibut.
> >you have to be able to not tell if this is the last time you'll
ever
> >encounter the other party
>
>
>True. I don't have a very high opinion of US Senators but they almost always
>keep their promises, those made to other Senators that is. Having a
reputation
>for honesty among fellow Senators is to your advantage so you work at it,
>developing such a reputation with Mr. Joe Average would be no great benefit
>so the hell with it.
This is one of the hidden (or at least unpiblicized) costs of term limits.
It increases the "lame duck" period when elected officials can't be sure
their logrolling will pay off. "Why should I cut a deal with Senator X,
he's a short-timer."
>
>In the First World War the same solders sometimes fought each other from
>their trenches for months at a time, they started to get polite, no
artillery
>attacks at dinner time or when bathing, they let the wounded be evacuated
and
>the mail truck get through. The Generals thought things were getting a
>little too comfy so they started to rotate the troops around more often and
>the cooperation ended.
>From what I've read, there was a great deal more done than that, including
senior officers forcing charges at gunpoint.
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