Game theory gives insight into how we can reduce carbon emissions
With the People’s Climate March taking place in New York City just over a week ago, I found the content of this article overwhelmingly relevant not only to material in our course but also to current issues today. This march was the largest climate march history, drawing out an estimated 400,000 people last Sunday; with […]
Evolutionary Game Theory
Since Darwin, the goals of evolution seemed to be to create the fittest organism for the given environment. But, according to a recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a new approach to viewing the “choices” evolution makes. A Computer Science professor from UC Berkeley was looking at the equations that biologists […]
Maximizing Acceptance of Targeted Friend Requests in Social Networks
Currently, the standard for social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn is to recommend new friends to users based on the existing connections they have. Users are given a list of potential friends that are typically friends-of-friends they have on the site already, since those are the relationships that are most likely to form given […]
The Game Theory of Dota 2
In 2011 Valve released Dota2, a new online video game with it’s tournament dubbed The International. Players from all over the world game to Cologne, Germany to play for the grand prize of one million US dollars in the largest e-sport event of all time. This past July the fourth rendition of the International […]
Ad-Blocking Software and Game Theory
In the podcast “Hello Internet”, YouTubers C.G.P. Grey and Brady Haran spend a lot of time discussing the advertising industry. In a segment about ad-blocking software, Grey outlines a paradox of using these programs: “It is undeniable that, in aggregate, ad-blocking software is bad for the Internet. The problem is… the impact of ad-blocking software […]
The Stability of Divisions within the UN Security Council
For some background knowledge, the United Nations Security Council is composed of 22 rotating members and 5 permanent members. The five permanent members, besides serving on the council indefinitely, sit at a unique position of power: each has an absolute veto on any action taken by the council. The five permanent members are Russia, China, […]
Market-Clearing Prices in Energy
This article discusses the International Energy Agency’ expenditure predicts that the use of renewable energy will contribute a lot more to the global electricity generation. It interesting how countries part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in a projected graph may not contribute as much to the global electricity through renewables than Non-OECD […]
Game theory in cricket: batsman vs fast bowler
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2012/04/decision-making-cricket The article considers decision making in cricket, specifically for batsmen facing fast bowlers – defined as bowlers who can consistently bowl at speeds above 90 miles an hour. It starts off with a specific situation in a game in 1981 and then goes on to, in general terms, comment on how and why certain […]
Using Game Theory and Payoffs to Reduce Rush Hour Traffic
Most people would agree that rush hour traffic is horrible; the congestion increases travel time to work. One would think that people would avoid traveling at this time because they want a faster route. However, most people receive the highest payoff from their work day when they travel at this time. The payoff is most […]
Industry debates FCC auction rules for AT&T and Verizon
The FCC was recently decided that they are going to auction off a section of the broadcast spectrum , known as the “H” Block, that could increase the network speeds for whoever did win this auction. The Senate subcommittee was hearing from representatives from the two main trade associations (AT&T and Verizon). Many heads in […]
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