Prisoner’s dilemma shows exploitation is a basic property of human society
In this article, “Prisoner’s dilemma shows exploitation is a basic property of human society” (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613585/prisoners-dilemma-shows-how-exploitation-is-a-basic-property-of-human-society/), the psychology behind humans exploiting each other is explained. Additionally, game theororists, Fujimotoa and Kaneko, explain how it is possible to maintain and execute an exploitative relationship. The main example that they used to explain this was say there are two prisoners, Alice and Bob. Alice learns Bob’s strategy ahead of time and convinces him to go with the exploitative option even though Alice’s payoff will be better. This relationship can be maintained, but can also crumble due to other conditions. In addition, these theororists are studying how exploitation can be avoided and what the person who is exploited can do to get out of it.
I thought this was a very intriguing article. Personally, I think it is difficult to think of a situation where two individuals are exactly equal, but will have different payoffs. Also, in the article they mentioned exploitation by power, which I think should be emphasized and studied considering there are many complex situations in which individuals aren’t equal. I believe it’s valuable to analyze situations like this to develop problem solving and reasoning skills, but there are often many more factors that we should take into consideration. Additonally, it would also be very interesting to work with a real life Prisoners Dilemma example in class.