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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. In Chapter 6 one of von Neumann's RAND colleagues in the 1950s was mentioned as whom?

2. What war between the Allied and Axis powers was going on when von Neumann was invited to become part of the Manhattan Project?

3. Who played Kriegspiel as a boy?

4. Who developed the game model now known as a prisoner's dilemma?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is a minimax solution and saddle points?

2. What is game theory according to Chapter 1 of "Prisoner's Dilemma?"

3. What is prisoner's dilemma?

4. What was the Manhattan Project?

5. What are zero-sum games?

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

7. Who is John Nash?

8. How did von Neumann end up working on the Manhattan Project and what did he produce while there?

9. What is the IAS?

10. What kind of studies did RAND conduct?

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

Why did interest in game theory wane in the mid-1950s? With whom or with what did the public associate game theory by this time? How did this discontent affect the focus of game theory research? How did the Ohio Studies come out of this shift? What did the Ohio State studies examine and what did they reveal, including in later variations in the studies?

Essay Topic 3

John von Neumann made significant contributions to military technology in connection with nuclear war. Yet as he got older he became pessimistic about the role of technology, especially military technology in modern society. What contributions did von Neumann make in military technology? Why did von Neumann become increasingly pessimistic about such technology in the modern world? Were his concerns valid? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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