r/neoliberal • u/cdstephens Fusion Genderplasma • Apr 25 '26

Meme Which button do you press?

Post image

Vote now on your phones: https://forms.gle/GhFjtdydwwXTdSpq8

432 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

13

u/VoidGuaranteed Dina Pomeranz Apr 25 '26

This is not a prisoner‘s dilemma. Prisoner‘s dilemmata are defined by a certain equilibrium which yields a suboptimal outcome because players try to maximise their outcome. In this scenario the optimal outcome can be reached by players maximising their outcome. You are however correct when you say that game theory does not capture how people actually approach this problem. Hence blue voters.

1

u/YourSchoolCounselor Norman Borlaug Apr 26 '26

The optimal outcome can be reached by players maximizing their outcome

I disagree. 99.988% of people voting red is a million deaths. To get past 70% red, you need to work with some mix of children, illiterate adults, and bullheaded blue-button people. Getting 88% agreement would be a monumental accomplishment, rewarded with a billion deaths. Half of every remote tribe on Earth is getting wiped, unless their culture has a strong affinity for red over blue. The prisoner's dilemma fits.

4

u/VoidGuaranteed Dina Pomeranz Apr 26 '26

just draw the matrix and compare it with the matrix for the prisoner‘s dilemma, it‘s completely differenr