The Falsely Restricted Outcomes of the Prisoner’s Dilemma

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2446 ^ | William M. Briggs

[mattstat]

2019 --- This blog is charged with Contributing to the Delinquency of Citizens. Its recent post, "The Government Should Mind Its Own Business" was found, by the ministry of free speech, to be "subversive and disquieting", offenses punishable by death. Arrests were made.

It was discovered that the blog's owner did not write the article, a fact which saved his skin. His punishment was a mere six years educational readjustment.

During the course of his routine interrogation to extract information related to the crime, the blog owner, after being forced to listen to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" three times in a row, cracked.

Before losing the last of his marbles, the blog owner was able to tell his inquisitors two names: Mike and Ari. Subsequent IP and weblog analysis revealed unequivocally that these two gentlemen were the only possible authors.

Both were arrested and stored in separate cells, into which a selection of Beatles tunes were looped to soften them up.

These prisoners had a dilemma!

Four outcomes were possible:

1. Mike rats out Ari, Ari remains loyal; Mike goes free, Ari fries.
2. Mike and Ari remain loyal; both receive six years reeducation, because the government would never execute where there is ambiguity.
3. Mike remains loyal, Ari rats out Mike; Ari goes free, Mike fries.
4. Mike rats out Ari, who rats out Mike; once more there is ambiguity, and both are sentenced to hand copy the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" for the remainder of their sorry lives.

Both men know these possibilities. Mike sits and stews, wondering if he should rat out Ari, hoping that if he does so, he'll go free, but Ari will fry. "Of course," Mike thinks, "Ari knows that if he rats me out and I keep quiet, I fry."