According
to Wikipedia, "Game
theory is the
study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational
agents."
Game
theory has only limited usefulness for social scientists because
society consists of many
games, not just one, and these games interact with each other. The
world is much more complicated than any single game.
Decades
ago, I tried to make chess more like society, converting it into a
more complicated game than it already is. On an ocean liner between
Honolulu and San Francisco, I was accosted by guy who wanted to play
chess. When I informed him that I was not a strong player, he
claimed he wasn't either. He lied.
He
clobbered me, having memorized standard approaches to chess moves.
Mortified, I invented a chess version to force people like him to
live by their wits, like I have to.
Flexichess
begins like regular chess. But instead of moving a piece players
can, within a few limits, change a rule, altering the whole
balance of forces on the chessboard. No one can predict how rules
will be changed, throwing rascals like my steamship companion off
balance.
Later,
I converted Flexichess into a team sport, Perplexichess.
Teams consisting of 7 players play Flexichess on seven boards. On
top of this a team's eighth member---a grand strategist---can move
pieces to the same location on another board if it is unoccupied,
without
taking turns with
the other grand strategist!.
The grand strategist's goal is to win a majority of the boards.
Board
players, playing Flexichess rationally, may be defeated because
their team's grand strategist sacrificed their board by moving key
pieces to a board where they were worth more.
Since
it has many games going on simultaneously at two different levels,
Perplexichess is very complicated. But it is still much less
complicated than human societies are.
The
world is made up of a vast number of different "games"
simultaneously played by seven billion people. The main game many
people play, especially in poor countries or among poorer people in
rich countries, simply seeks physical survival.
Other
people may be playing romantic games. And there are an endless
number of games played by individuals in corporations, labor unions,
churches, schools and universities, interest groups, hospitals,
and charitable organizations.
Most
individuals are playing several different games.
At
a still higher level we find games played by politicians seeking
appointment or election to high government positions.
The
winners in these political games find themselves in games at a still
higher level, seeking to protect themselves from challengers.
While they remain in power, many of them may seek to advantage their
own glory and their government at the expense of others, sometimes
even getting their countries into wars.
As
in Perplexichess, the games played at a higher level of society can
throw the games of people playing at a lower level into total chaos.
For example, a student planning to become a scientist might be
drafted to fight a war in some country with which he (or she, in
some countries) has no connection, concern, or knowledge.
On
9-11 many financial executives working in the Twin Towers found their
professional games, and their lives, undone by a game played by the
fanatics who crashed hijacked airliners into their buildings.
Lower
level games can also confound those playing higher level games.
National leaders attempting to minimize injuries caused by Covid
have been frustrated by games played by governors, political
opportunists, and foreign enemies who injected divisive social media
memes into our society.
No
wonder it is nearly impossible to predict what is going to happen
next! And the complexity caused by the interactions of multiple
games also makes it difficult to understand what has already gone on,
creating opportunities for crazy conspiracy theories to catch on.
A
conspiracy theory can be simple and consistent, whereas reality is
often messy.
