http://www.spaceandgames.com with applications Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:15:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm writing a book about Go strategy. I'll be comparing moves by professionals to moves by amateurs in the 1-3k range. My hope is that amateur players may improve by trying to imitate the professionals. Two-Stone Corner Patterns Three-Stone Corner Patterns Four-Stone Corner Patterns http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=140 Challenge: Design an algorithm that: takes a discrete probability distribution and a source of random bits, and returns a sample from the probability distribution. if running the algorithm on distribution P1 with random bits S yields X1, and running it on (P2, S) yields X2, and X2 ≠ X1, then P2(X2) ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=120 When I posted about cabal equilibria to election methods mailing list, Jameson Quinn asked me when honest voting is a cabal equilibrium. I have a partial answer. Assume we are using an election method that satisfies the Condorcet criterion, and there exists a double Condorcet winner. Then an honest vote is ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=134 Paron had been at the academy for far too long. He had switched from geometry to biology, and finally to game theory. When at last he finished his thesis, it was a cause for celebration. The party was far from grand; more than twenty people were packed into Paron's meager, ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=132 Last year I introduced cabal equilibria. This post is a summary of my research on cabal equilibria and election methods. Since this is just a short summary, I'm going to skip over any caveats about exact ties in elections. In any game, a cabal equilibrium is a strategy profile in which ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=106 Clearly, it's absurd that paper beats rock, but if rock beat paper then the game would become pointless. Suppose we changed the rules such that paper only scores 1/2 point against rock. A full victory (rock against scissors or scissors against paper) scores 1 point, and a loss scores -1 point. ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=88 The germ that infects you was selected for its ability to spread across hosts, but the germ population in your body is being selected for its ability to spread within your body. The latter is more destructive than the former, so the germ population in your body becomes more destructive ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=85 Go players have hundreds of proverbs — pithy sentences that convey important heuristics. It is not enough to simply read proverbs; you must study them at length to unfold them into procedural knowledge. Most proverbs are particular to Go (e.g. six die but eight live), but some generalize to other adversarial ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=81 Eliezer Yudkowsky1999 famously categorized beliefs about the future into discrete "shock levels." Michael Anissimov later wrote a nice introduction to future shock levels. Higher shock levels correspond to belief in more powerful and radical technologies, and are considered more correct than lower shock levels. Careful thinking and exposure to ideas ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=74 In light of my previous post, I'd like to suggest a vote-matching scheme. Let's start with an example: Suppose there's a presidential election between Kodos, Kang, and Washington. Kodos and Kang seem to be the leading candidates. Alf and Beth are trying to decide who to vote for. They both ... http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=65