Game Theory in its Simplest Form: Agar.io
The Game One of the hottest games for mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms is serving as a cluster-free, pure example of how game theory and competition come together in the form of one “Microsoft paint”-like blob. Agar.io has been in the top fifty apps on the Apple App store for several months, perhaps even as […]
Networks in Migration and Social Work
Network theory is present whenever people are present and making dynamic connections. One notable such example is migration, as people move to new locations and create new ties and connections, while also having old ones. An interesting journal piece, “The Neglect of Network Theory in Practice” by Amilia E. Martinez-Brawley and Paz M-B. Zorita at Arizona […]
Job Search – LinkedIn and Connecting with Weak Ties
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-keating/job-strategy-the-human-si_b_4660430.html Kim Keating describes the best strategy to finding a job in her article “Job Strategy: The Human Side of Digital Networking.” She advises that people should begin searching for jobs by consulting their acquaintances or people with whom you have lost contact with for a few years before their close friends, family, colleagues, etc. […]
Balancing Video Games
In competitive video games, balance and fairness is a very important topic which gets brought up a lot. In games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, and Halo, patches/updates are released every couple of days or weeks. In these patches, changes are made to playable characters to try to make sure one character does […]
Designing with Graph Theory
During our discussions in lecture regarding networks, we used something called graph theory to help understand these networks properly. We started by talking about the network of computer systems that essentially made up the Internet in the early 1970’s with graphs showing how each was connected. Other examples included social networks, credit card transactions and […]
Networks in the Natural World: Formation of the Universe
When I think of networks, my mind tends to picture large social media graphs with clusters of nodes, interconnected with lines to represent friendships between certain individuals. However, this same phenomenon of a network can be found naturally outside of this representation. Astronomers have known about a cosmic web of filaments connecting all the galaxies […]
Stock Plunges, a Study in Game Theory
On Wednesday August 5th, 2015, Disney’s stocks plummeted a shocking 9 percent – the worst drop in the last four years. The drop stemmed from an announcement of losses in ESPN subscribers, an integral part of the Disney Company. Following the statement, many prominent economic analysts began doubting the security of TV-subscriber based profit models […]
Networks in Nature
As we have seen in class, when we observe patterns in networks, we find that there are a underlying principles explaining these patterns. It is easier for us to study patterns in human-based networks, because being humans ourselves, we can logically work our way through the thought process of individuals in a network as bonds […]
London’s Underground Transportation System: Appearance vs. Reality
A recent article on IFLscience.com (The full article can be found HERE) recently caught my eye. In summary, it highlights the difference between two maps of London’s underground transportation system. The first map, called Harry Beck’s Tube Map, was created in the 1930s by Harry Beck and has been revised over the years. It’s […]
Game Theory in Climate Change Negotiations
Though climate change is a pressing issue facing our world, not much is being done about it. Advocates of greenhouse gas emission reductions find the planet a victim of the tragedy of the commons—the payoff for an individual country not complying with reductions is very high, but when each country follows this logic, the payoff […]
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