Time and the Prisoner's Dilemma [article]

Yishay Mor, Jeffrey S. Rosenschein
2007 arXiv   pre-print
This paper examines the integration of computational complexity into game theoretic models. The example focused on is the Prisoner's Dilemma, repeated for a finite length of time. We show that a minimal bound on the players' computational ability is sufficient to enable cooperative behavior. In addition, a variant of the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma game is suggested, in which players have the choice of opting out. This modification enriches the game and suggests dominance of cooperative
more » ... es. Competitive analysis is suggested as a tool for investigating sub-optimal (but computationally tractable) strategies and game theoretic models in general. Using competitive analysis, it is shown that for bounded players, a sub-optimal strategy might be the optimal choice, given resource limitations.
arXiv:cs/0701139v1 fatcat:mmrnw7lfffhcpb7jq2nw6ibqnm