When you say that choosing to defect might make it more likely that they defect, do you mean that choosing to defect may cause the probability that the other person will defect to go up, or do you mean that the probability of the other player defecting, given that you defected, may be greater than the probability given that you cooperated?
To quote Douglas Adams, “The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.” If it is impossible to have off-diagonal results, that is a much stronger argument for cooperating than having it be improbable, even if the probability of an on-diagonal result is 99.99%; as long as the possibility exists, one should take it into consideration.
If it is impossible to have off-diagonal results, that is a much stronger argument for cooperating than having it be improbable
If the probability is epsilon, then having the probability be zero is only an epsilon stronger argument. If you doubt this let epsilon equal 1/googolplex.
I mean the second one. Also, if I said the first one, I would mean the second one. They’re the same by the definitions I use. The second one is more clear.
If it is impossible to have off-diagonal results, that is a much stronger argument for cooperating than having it be improbable, even if the probability of an on-diagonal result is 99.99%; as long as the possibility exists, one should take it into consideration.
If the probability of an on-diagonal result is sufficiently high, and the benefit of an off-diagonal one is sufficiently low, that is all that’s necessary for it to be worth while to cooperate.
When you say that choosing to defect might make it more likely that they defect, do you mean that choosing to defect may cause the probability that the other person will defect to go up, or do you mean that the probability of the other player defecting, given that you defected, may be greater than the probability given that you cooperated?
To quote Douglas Adams, “The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.” If it is impossible to have off-diagonal results, that is a much stronger argument for cooperating than having it be improbable, even if the probability of an on-diagonal result is 99.99%; as long as the possibility exists, one should take it into consideration.
If the probability is epsilon, then having the probability be zero is only an epsilon stronger argument. If you doubt this let epsilon equal 1/googolplex.
I mean the second one. Also, if I said the first one, I would mean the second one. They’re the same by the definitions I use. The second one is more clear.
If the probability of an on-diagonal result is sufficiently high, and the benefit of an off-diagonal one is sufficiently low, that is all that’s necessary for it to be worth while to cooperate.