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Melvin Dresher: 2 ideas and puzzles worth knowing

2 ideas and puzzles from Melvin Dresher, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• Two rational people can guarantee a worse outcome for both of them

  Two suspects, held separately, are each offered a lighter sentence for betraying the other. If both stay silent, both get a light sentence; if both betray, both get a heavy one — y…

  — Merrill Flood & Melvin Dresher; formalised by Albert Tucker, A Non-Cooperative Equilibrium (formalisation of Flood & Dresher's game)

• Two suspects, held apart, are offered the same deal — will either one keep quiet?

  Two suspects are arrested and questioned in separate rooms, unable to communicate. Each is offered the same deal: betray your partner and, if they stay silent, you go free while th…

  — Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher (game); Albert W. Tucker (framing), Prisoner's dilemma

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