Game theory was pioneered by Schelling with the central and most important application being handling nuclear armed conflicts. To say that game theory doesn’t apply to nuclear conflict because we live in an imperfect world is just not accurate. Game theory doesn’t require a perfect world nor does it require that actors know each other’s source code. It is designed to guide decisions made in the real world.
I know that it is designed to guide decisions made in the real world. This does not force me to agree with the conclusions in all circumstances. Lots of models are not up to the task they are designed to deal with.
But I should have said “not in that game theory situation”, becasue there is probably a way to construct some game theory game that applies here. That was my bad.
However, I stand by the claim that the full information game is too far from reality to be a good guide in this case. With stakes this high even small uncertainty becomes important.
Game theory was pioneered by Schelling with the central and most important application being handling nuclear armed conflicts. To say that game theory doesn’t apply to nuclear conflict because we live in an imperfect world is just not accurate. Game theory doesn’t require a perfect world nor does it require that actors know each other’s source code. It is designed to guide decisions made in the real world.
I know that it is designed to guide decisions made in the real world. This does not force me to agree with the conclusions in all circumstances. Lots of models are not up to the task they are designed to deal with.
But I should have said “not in that game theory situation”, becasue there is probably a way to construct some game theory game that applies here. That was my bad.
However, I stand by the claim that the full information game is too far from reality to be a good guide in this case. With stakes this high even small uncertainty becomes important.