Game theory
Game theory is the study of strategic decision making.
Description
Specifically, game theory is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers."
An alternative term suggested "as a more descriptive name for the discipline" is interactive decision theory.
Game theory is mainly used in:
A well as:
The subject first addressed zero-sum games, such that one person's gains exactly equal net losses of the other participant or participants.
Today, however, game theory applies to a wide range of behavioral relations, and has developed into an umbrella term for the logical side of decision science, including both humans and non-humans (e.g. computers, animals).
History
Modern game theory began with the idea regarding the existence of mixed-strategy equilibria in two-person zero-sum games and its proof by John von Neumann.
Von Neumann's original proof used Brouwer fixed-point theorem on continuous mappings into compact convex sets, which became a standard method in game theory and mathematical economics.
His paper was followed by the 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, co-written with Oskar Morgenstern, which considered cooperative games of several players.
The second edition of this book provided an axiomatic theory of expected utility, which allowed mathematical statisticians and economists to treat decision-making under uncertainty.
This theory was developed extensively in the 1950s by many scholars.
Game theory was later explicitly applied to biology in the 1970s, although similar developments go back at least as far as the 1930s.
Game theory has been widely recognized as an important tool in many fields.
With the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences going to game theorist Jean Tirole in 2014, eleven game-theorists have now won the economics Nobel Prize (as of 2015).
John Maynard Smith was awarded the Crafoord Prize for his application of game theory to biology.
See also
External links
- Game theory @ Wikipedia
See also
- Abstract strategy game
- Agent-based model
- Algorithmic game theory
- Branching factor
- Calculation
- Combinatorial game theory
- Computer science
- Decision science
- Game
- Game tree
- Information
- Logic
- Mathematics
- Mathematical model
- Perfect information (game theory)
- Risk
- Uncertainty
- Zugzwang
External Links
- Game theory @ Wikipedia
