How to outsmart the Prisoner’s Dilemma - Lucas Husted

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Published 2020-08-27
Puzzle through the classic game theory challenge, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, and decide: would you choose to spare or sacrifice?

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Two perfectly rational gingerbread men, Crispy and Chewy, are out strolling when they’re caught by a fox. Instead of simply eating them, he decides to put their friendship to the test with a cruel dilemma. He’ll ask each gingerbread man whether he’d opt to Spare or Sacrifice the other. What should they choose? Lucas Husted dives into the classic game theory scenario: the Prisoner's Dilemma.

Lesson by Lucas Husted, directed by Ivana Bošnjack and Thomas Johnson.

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All Comments (21)
  • @sophiesmith9300
    "Two perfectly rational gingerbread men" As gingerbread men usually are
  • @mrsahilbawa
    Why isn’t that wizard minding his own business? Typical wizard.
  • @vernowietsch
    "Infinite triple limb consumption" is not a phrase I had expected to ever hear in my life, but I am not disappointed
  • if the gingerbread men were actually smart they would have just offered to let the fox eat their gingerbread house
  • “The weather today is partly suspicious, with chances of betrayal.” wow who hurt you
  • @maliksiraj3443
    Plot Twist : The Fox Was Disguised As The Wizard, To Eat them Everyday!
  • @Winteramen
    "Their eternity may be very crumby but so long as they go out on a limb their lives will never be half baked." well done guys. Got three puns in at the final few seconds of the video. Bravo
  • @Ben-rz9cf
    I like stuff like this because its a convincing argument you can make to even a sociopath that morality is a logical thing.
  • @technetium9653
    God, the animation is phenomenal, shout out to the animators : Ivana bosnjak and Thomas Johnson
  • @natalicox9939
    Moral of the story: Don’t look happy when you encounter a fox.
  • @sbrevoltuion5
    The flaw in the rationality is that while crispy looses nothing of his own, he does lose something very valuable: a friend
  • @PhantomSavage
    At that point I'd just say "well, if he's going to eat one or part of us anyway. New plan: Kill the fox or die trying." I'd say YOLO, but it wouldn't apply here.
  • @Jingatoe
    alternate ending: the fox dies because he ate too much sugar.
  • When you realise that the wizard is just trying to feed his pet fox. Being a freelance wizard is a low income job after all.
  • @silencia08
    Fox: So have you decided? Fox: Who will be sacrificed and who will be spared? Chewy & Crispy: (in unison) Yes we have decided to sacrifice the WIZARD!!!
  • Oh, so THAT'S how you outsmart the Prisoners' Dilemma... by just changing the premise so it's literally not the Prisoners' Dilemma anymore.
  • @adumba3709
    Of course the gingerbread people are perfectly rational, everyone in the Ted Ed universe is
  • @char8962
    the cookies: 😀😀 the fox: yall a lil too happy so imma test y’all the cookies: 😐😐
  • “ Fox, we have come to bargain ...” “ You have come to have your limbs eaten “
  • This video is a great way to show explain all of these concepts. My only qualm is that I don't think Chewy and Crispy friendship is represented by the problem which is fine for the video but it would of been fun to talk about. If my friend was going to lose 3 or all of his limbs I would probably value those at least a little bit. The simple graph assumes that Chewy and Crispy are opposing players in a game and not working against the fox on a team with limited communication. I would have to assume that two real friends would draw the graph out based on the total number of limbs between the two of them rather than the number of limbs individually and therefore always pick Spare from the get go.