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In the case of a perfectly selfless person playing with a selfish person yes, that is a place where game theory ceases to be useful. But real altruists are imp
by Symmetry 12y ago
In the case of a perfectly selfless person playing with a selfish person yes, that is a place where game theory ceases to be useful. But real altruists are imperfect, and have somewhat different notions of utility and planning horizons. Some games cease to be interesting but others turn from pure conflict to interesting games.
In fact, most of the examples I remember from The Strategy of Conflict are among groups that generally mutually altruistic, like parent and child or soldiers fighting on the same side in a war.
Of course, games played among roughly altruistic players tend to have much better outcomes...