Imagine you and a stranger are paired together for a little game. Now there’s some money up for grabs and you’re both given 2 choices; Share or Snake.
If you both share you both win £15 each.
If one of you shares and one of you snakes, the snake will win £50 leaving the person who chose share with nothing.
If you both pick snake, you both leave with nothing.
Would you pick ‘snake’ in the hopes of taking a bigger prize for yourself, or would you pick ‘share’ to share a smaller prize!? What would you do? What should you do? And why should we even care?
In this episode, which is also the season finale, Bia shares some introductory game theory with Zoey by discussing:
The social-media experiment they both conducted through Instagram: “Snake or Share”
The Prisoner’s dilemma (which is the original problem)
The Traveller’s dilemma.
Acting like a “snake” i.e. picking the “dominant strategy” may give you control leaving you less susceptible to exploitation, but is it always the most profitable strategy? And what about the long-term implications of this?
Sodosage’s Instagram (poet): @sodosage
how 2 rob a bank 