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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Russell was the first to suggest a different game model for ___ than prisoner's dilemma.

2. When a game does not have a saddle point, what strategy must be used?

3. With what country was the United States engaged in a "cold war?"

4. Which game was popular in the IAS lunch rooms?

5. Several famous RAND studies looked at how the public would respond to contact with aliens and life after what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did von Neumann end up at Princeton after earning his PhD in mathematics?

2. Why was von Neumann considered the "best brain in the world?"

3. What is a minimax solution and saddle points?

4. Where is von Neumann from and why was he considered a child prodigy?

5. What is the IAS?

6. Besides all his work on the Manhattan Project, von Neumann also found time to help IBM. How did he help this company?

7. What are the details of one of the ethical dilemmas described in Chapter 1 of "Prisoner's Dilemma"?

8. How is Kriegspiel different from Chess or Tic-tac-toe?

9. What is prisoner's dilemma?

10. What was the Manhattan Project?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did each of these people figure in the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union: Harold Urey, Klaus Fuchs, Douglas MacArthur, and Francis Matthews?

Essay Topic 2

In the 1980s game theory took an unexpected turn and evolutionary game theory was born. How did this happen? What was the logic behind the development of this theory? Aspects of what disciplines were used to create this evolutionary model? How did Robert Axelrod introduce a strategy based in human psychology to the traditional problem found in game theory?

Essay Topic 3

In real life dollar auctions the author writes about how many a justifiable action, in looking back, becomes the first "defection" in an escalating dilemma. How can you penalize the first bidder for not wanting to waste the "ninety-nine cent profit?" In relation to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union what was the defection? Why was there a defection and how did this dilemma escalate as both sides designed more and more nuclear weapons?

(see the answer keys)

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