Tuesday, August 25, 2009

[ekvpxngc] Mutual lies

Courtship among humans (probably other species too) is an imperfect information game, with both sides facing asymmetric information. As predicted by game theory, both sides use signaling mechanisms (fast cars? short skirts?) to appear desirable to the opposite sex. As predicted by game theory again, these signals are often deceptive with men and women looking for entirely different things in each other than who they actually are. Cynically we might describe the situation (is it Nash equilibrium?) as mutual lies.

And yet, almost miraculously, our species manages to successfully breed generation after generation, with no end in sight.

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