PROBABILISTIC LEARNING AUTOMATA AND THE PRISONER'S DILEMMA

The Prisoner's Dilemma (henceforth PD) has been discussed extensively as a model of the conflict between competition and cooperation, or between individual and collective rationality. PD can be viewed either as a mathematical paradox, or as a useful (albeit simplified) paradigm that belongs to the realm of applied sciences such as psychology, economics, political science, biology, ecology etc. A good technical presentation of PD appears in (Rapoport, 1966). A bibliography and discussion of the technical aspects can be found in (Luce & Raiffa, 1985); an extensive treatment of variations of PD can be found in (Axelrod, 1984). For an interesting popularized discussion see (Hofstadter, 1985).