A lesser known game theoretic positive-sum equilibrium: the Stag Hunt.

· Bits and Bobs 7/27/26
  • A lesser known game theoretic positive-sum equilibrium: the Stag Hunt.
    • Prisoner's Dilemma is the most famous one; a negative-sum equilibrium to potential collaboration.
      • Cursed!
    • The Stag Hunt is also a potential collaboration, but one with a positive-sum equilibrium.
    • In the Stag Hunt, you must collaborate to successfully hunt the stag.
    • If you defect, the best you can do alone is hunt rabbits.
    • Nuclear arms were originally a Prisoner's Dilemma that once they were created became a Stag Hunt.
    • At the end of WWII, the Nazis were working on the nuclear bomb, which meant the US had no choice but to do it, too.
      • A race to create the bomb.
      • Classic Prisoner's Dilemma.
    • But then after the bomb was created, the US and the USSR fell into a Stag Hunt frame.
      • The winning move isn't to cause a nuclear war, where at best some small part of your society might survive in a miserable existence, but instead to avoid nuclear war.
    • We're currently in a Prisoner's Dilemma to create ASI.