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April 30, 2012 Posted by Jay Livingston I don’t know much about game theory. I’ve always found it hard to squeeze real-life situations into the shape of a prisoner’s-dilemma matrix and to think of life as a game. A game show, on the other hand, is a game. And the final round of the British show “Golden Balls” is totally Prisoner’s Dilemma. (Shouldn’t that apostrophe be moved to make it be Prisoners’ Dilemma? After all, it’s not solitaire.
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December 19, 2009Posted by Jay Livingston The politics of health care reform presents a dilemma for those who want change. It’s the dilemma of compromising with evil. Do we sacrifice real improvement for the sake of ideological puri... Read Post

April 14, 2012 Posted by Jay Livingston Individual facts may be very useful for explaining other individual facts. But in explaining social facts, they don’t always get us very far. This Durkheimian notion is one of the first ideas ... Read Post

Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog. I don’t know much about game theory.  I’ve always found it hard to squeeze real-life situations into the shape of a prisoner’s-dilemma matrix and to think of life as a game.  A game show, on the ... Read Post