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Tit For Tat Beaten?
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Research
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By overconvergent
Posted Thu Oct 28, 2004 at 01:25:11 PM PDT
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The Prisoners' Dilemma is a well-known problem in game theory: should one defect or cooperate? The rational answer seems to be to defect, but if the players could cooperate, then they could share a greater reward.
The "Tit-for-Tat" strategy - begin by cooperating, then mirror the adversary's move - is a simple yet highly effective way to play. It has long been thought to be one of the best possible strategies, but a new strategy has emerged which can sometimes do even better.
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| A famous tournament, run by Robert Axelrod about 20 years ago, was won by the unexpectedly simple Tit-for-Tat strategy submitted by Anatole Rapoport. Since then, it has been one of the most successful strategies for the Prisoners' Dilemma.
However, an anniversary tournament has produced a new winner, from the University of Southampton in England.
The Southampton strategy is to have several programs playing, and for them to communicate with each other by means of their first ten or so moves. Then, designated "master" strategies will win, while the designated "slave" strategies will ``take one for the team'' and lose.
It is unclear how well this new set of strategies would do in other tournaments, but the mere fact that it could beat Tit-for-Tat in open competition is an exciting development. |
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