Re: Nash equilibrium's relevance

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael wrote:

> Again, Phil Mirowski's new book is excellent on this.

Thanks to Michael's previous reference, I read parts of the book
and loved it. I am about to start reading it from cover to cover.
One feeling I got from the book is that Nash equilibrium is some
kind of a "paranoid schizophrenic" equilibrium. I would add
masochistic to that, especially after watching some fights over
the net. If the participants of those fights were not driving
some pleasure from that self-inflicted pain, why would they
continue doing what they are doing? They don't even realize that
they are stuck in a paranoid schizophrenic/masochistic Nash
equilibrium because of their love for the idea of non-cooperative
rationality. They better realize that to break away from that
bloody equilibrium, that is, to destabilize it, they need to make
a few cooperative moves before they destroy our psychologies too.
Who knows, if they take a few cooperative steps, they will even
learn to derive some pleasure from cooperation and possibly help
us reach a non-Nash equilibrium where, as Louis Armstrong sings
in "What a Wonderful World", we all will have a decent place
under the sun.

For the time being, masochistically yours,

Sabri