Game Changers by Rudolf Taschner

Author:Rudolf Taschner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633883741
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2017-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

“The two zeros at the bottom are obvious: if both of them swerve away, neither of them can show off to the other. Neither of them has won, but equally neither of them has lost. If both of them continue driving straight on, the cars crash into each other, which in itself isn't necessarily too bad a thing, since they're stolen. But the two boys risk being seriously hurt. That's why I put minus four in the top left box—minus, because you're talking about the opposite of winning.”

“But why minus four and not some other negative figure?”

“It's all the same—you could just as easily put minus ten,” is Nash's curt response, but then he suddenly remembers the rules of good behavior, rules that do not come naturally from his inner character, but which he has taught himself, like others might learn vocabulary in a foreign language. “Mr. Tucker, sir, take a look at the other two boxes. In the top right is what the players get if Jim continues driving and Buzz swerves away. In such a case, Jim gets plus one and Buzz minus one. and in the bottom left is the opposite case—Jim swerves away and so is penalized with minus one, since he is the chicken. But Buzz, who continues driving straight on, has won the game and gets plus one.”

Tucker's interest has been fully aroused. “I see exactly what you're saying.”

“It's not a zero-sum game,” says Nash exultantly, “and I've already analyzed it.” He beams at Tucker, takes another sheet of paper from the desk, and draws a square on it. He extends the bottom side of the square to the right, adds an arrow, and writes x there. He extends the left side of the square upward, adds another arrow and writes y. “The bottom side of the square represents Buzz as a chicken, that is, he always swerves away. The top side represents Buzz as a lion, always continuing to drive.” As he speaks, Nash extends the bottom line to the left and writes BC next to it, to show that Buzz is a chicken. Without a pause, he does the same to the top line, this time writing BL, to show that Buzz is a lion. “The same applies to the vertical sides of the square,” he explains as he draws, not looking up at Tucker and concentrating solely on his sketch. “The left side represents Jim as a chicken and the right side shows him stubbornly continuing to drive.” Again, he extends the lines and adds JC on the left and JL on the right. Then he writes a capital B at the top right of the page, circles it, and commences with his lecture again.

“It's not a zero-sum game,” he repeats, obviously infinitely pleased by this fact, “so I have to view the situation for each of the players individually. I'll start off with Buzz. If he knows that Jim will most likely swerve away—we're in the left-hand side of the square in the diagram now—he has a clear strategy: keep driving.

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