This is brilliant work and a great summary and analysis of the whole thing.
I’d love to see a version where the bots do not get each other’s code to use as a simulation, and are limited to their own experiences, but—before making the cooperate-or-defect decision—can pay the opponent a price that the opponent sets for the opponent’s full history to that point. This would require three decisions, instead of one: decide what price to set for your own history, decide whether to pay the price for your opponent’s history, and decide whether to cooperate or defect.
As a further variation, I’d love to see the same thing where contestants are allowed to submit multiple bots, so they can use some as information gatherers (until they die off).
And I’d upvote the suggestion of a variable-length simulation where no one knows the number of rounds ahead of time.
A price for a bot’s history is interesting. I would expect to commonly see bots setting the price at zero, so they can freely demonstrate a TFT-ish history. I would also expect to commonly see bots punishing other bots for not pricing at zero, effectively assuming that a priced history is either hiding defection or attempting to extort them.
This is brilliant work and a great summary and analysis of the whole thing.
I’d love to see a version where the bots do not get each other’s code to use as a simulation, and are limited to their own experiences, but—before making the cooperate-or-defect decision—can pay the opponent a price that the opponent sets for the opponent’s full history to that point. This would require three decisions, instead of one: decide what price to set for your own history, decide whether to pay the price for your opponent’s history, and decide whether to cooperate or defect.
As a further variation, I’d love to see the same thing where contestants are allowed to submit multiple bots, so they can use some as information gatherers (until they die off).
And I’d upvote the suggestion of a variable-length simulation where no one knows the number of rounds ahead of time.
Max L.
A price for a bot’s history is interesting. I would expect to commonly see bots setting the price at zero, so they can freely demonstrate a TFT-ish history. I would also expect to commonly see bots punishing other bots for not pricing at zero, effectively assuming that a priced history is either hiding defection or attempting to extort them.