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Thursday 9th September 2021

 Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot:

Technical Musings - Prisoner's Dilemma

How do people behave in a situation when they gain by co-operating, but gain more by not co-operating? This is the basic scenario of a mind game that is known as the 'Prisoner's Dilemma' where individual betrayal is rewarded higher than mutual co-operation. If you thought that altruism would win over selfish self-interest, then unfortunately, it seems that you would be wrong most of the time. There are many sources of this, and other similar 'Social Psychology' / Philosophical /  'mind games (thought experiments...) that reveal how people behave - but usually not why!' activities on the InterWeb. it is also used in MANY TV game shows...


For a VERY deep rabbit hole - try this: 

What seems to be happening is that a lot of people are convinced they were taught that 'Dilemna' is the correct spelling (The author of this text included!), even though it has NEVER been (which is why every spell checker and dictionary will show the 'mn' version as a mis-spelling (and autocorrect simply turns the 'mn' into 'mm' without asking). Even more curious, the same strangeness also happens in French, with the word 'Dilemme' or 'Dilemne'. 

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

Diner's Dilemma - a variant for diners who agree to split the bill...


 


Another rabbit hole is that there are lots of these types of thought experiments. Hey, one moment, why are these things called 'Rabbit Holes'? 


Some examples... - Caution: you may encounter extreme time-wasting via this link...

Media Musings - Bob Fosse

Bob Fosse?

If you are younger than a certain age, then you've probably never heard of him. But then, when you search and find out, you then wonder why you didn't know. It's an interesting paradox...


All That Jazz - an autobiographical musical...

You may have heard of these musicals/films, though:

Musicals:

The Pajama Game (1954)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961)
Sweet Charity (1966)
Chicago (1975)

Films:

Cabaret (1972)
Chicago (2002)

Most people's jaws drop for 'Chicago' and 'Cabaret', so don't feel embarrassed!

Time Machine - Does the World Really Change Over Time?

Things change over time, often subtly and gradually, and frequently without many people noticing. It seems that these changes could well reflect larger changes in society...

Argos, the catalogue shop, was previously a trading stamp collection shop for the Green Shield Stamps that were given by supermarkets and other shops instead of discounts. Stamps were collected and stuck into books, and then full books were exchanged for items - perhaps not unrelated to Second World War ration books. The Argos model just completely bypassed the stamps!

Petrol stations used to give small household items instead of discounts, so loyal customers would gradually acquire sets of glass tumblers, crockery, mugs... Some chains of petrol stations tried other variations, like coins based on sporting events: the World Cup, for example. Or even Green Shield Stamps... Over time, price seems to have become the dominant differentiation, and loyalty seems to have become devalued. 

TV game shows used to give real physical items as prizes: cars, boats, TVs, microwaves, washing machines, bicycles, etc. Intangibles like holidays and other entertainment event tickets were also used as prizes. Some game shows were even based on knowledge of the actual price of the items. Over time, money prizes replaced real things or holidays, Apparently because people preferred to buy things that they wanted instead, which probably says a lot about the affordability of the items. When a colour TV is rare, then having any colour TV has huge prestige value, but when everyone has a colour TV, then prestige comes from having a larger, more expensive or better featured version.

Investments - Property 

Do house prices always rise faster than anything else? What is the long term performance like? Before the InterWeb, then questions like this could be difficult to obtain reliable answers for, but now...






Media Recommendations



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A lot of discussion happens at The Thirsty Robot. This blog is an edited, biased summary of just a small fraction of the conversation, links/URLs and references that were mentioned. It is an imperfect record and is definitely not complete - for that you should visit The Thirsty Robot!

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The next online meeting at The Thirsty Robot is on a Thursday in 2 weeks time in 2021 at 7:30pm GMT.













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