The Thirsty Robot

 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... Prisoner's Dilemma Splitting money equitably? For a VERY deep rabbit hole - try this:  Dilemma or Dilemna?   Or this...    Or...   What seems to be happening is that a lot of people are convinced they were taught that ...