Product Description

Here's something to do at your next dinner party after the guests have wined and dined, tell them you're auctioning off a dollar--a plain U.S. one-dollar bill. But set the rules as follows: while the winner gets the dollar, the second-highest bidder must also pay the amount of his last bid, even though he gets nothing.

If you can get a single one-cent bid, chances are the auction will go to fifty cents. If someone bids fifty-one cents, bidding will almost certainly reach a dollar. If it goes to one dollar and one cent, the sky's the limit. No one wants to be the second-highest bidder. Afterwards the bidders say they spent so much because their opponent "went crazy," which is a little like saying "the fight started when he hit me back."

Everyone has gotten into situations that resembled the dollar auction--where they devoted way too much effort to something not worth the commitment, because the cost of giving up was worse.

Why do we act this way? How can we recognize these traps before we're in too deep? Is there such a thing as rational behavior, and if so, how do we use it to our advantage?

Hungarian mathematician Laszlo Mero introduces us to the basics of John von Neumann's game theory and shows how it illuminates such aspects of human psychology as altruism, competition, and politics. Mero covers such concepts as zero-sum games; Prisoner's Dilemma; the game of Chicken (played with cars in Rebel Without A Cause), where logic proves that the rational strategy is to be irrational; how to be kind to your lover through game theory; and when the Golden Rule works and when it leads to disaster.

Mero shows how game theory is applicable to fields ranging from physics to evolutionary biology, and explores the role of rational thinking in the context of real-life situations ranging from doorway etiquette to the nuclear arms race. He also explains how moral dilemmas arise; how to act rationally and ethically when they do; and how the intersection of rationality and irrationality inevitably becomes what we call "wisdom." This fascinating, urbane book shows us how we can better understand ethical behavior.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302157 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 276 pages

About the Author
Laszlo Mero is a mathematician living in Hungary, where Moral Calculations was a national bestseller. His latest project is a computer game he is developing with Erno Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube.

Customer Reviews

A very well written and important book
I found this book compelling: an understandable, non-dogmatic, open-minded, non-technical yet scientific look at how mathematical game theory might be applied by someone trying to behave morally in a universe of limited resources. The concepts are clearly stated without jargon in such a way that people with little aptitude or patience for mathematics will remain interested throughout. An important book for anyone interested in morality at any level.

An interesting book gets very, very strange.
Mero's book is an interesting read, and is a very good non-mathematical review of the basics of game theory and its relationship to human ethics. I suspect that its translation from Hungarian led to its sometimes strange choices of words, but on the whole, it is a good way to get a sense of the surprising generality and importance of the subject.

Unfortunately, the book is marred by Mero's expansion of game theory into a "theory of everything". By the last chapter, he has gone from straightforward applied mathematics into fuzzy-headed mysticism. At this point, the book has become more embarassing than interesting. My suggestion is to read the first half of tbe book and forget the rest!

Great for learning about Game Theory
This book is fascinating in how it demonstrates what we do in politics, science, and even meditation can affect our rational (and irrational) decision making processes, both individualy and in community.

I actually got referred to this book by a website that discussed Game Theory and when I went to Amazon to purchase it, I was amused by the reviewers on Amazon that were horrified that the last of the book covered Meditation/Mysticism. Thats what absolutely convinced me to buy it. I am a scientist and I am practicing meditation, I see both sides.

Mero does a great job of showing how Game Theory can explain the Rational and also show how irrational we are. He practically predicts why the reviewers that didn't like the last parts of his book are the way they are, which of course made them say the things they say in the review!

As the famous ad says, Just do it.