Once you understand game theory, you understand the world.

Veritasium · 26.7M views · 2023-12-23 · 27:19

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Overview

Veritasium explores the Prisoner's Dilemma and Axelrod's tournaments, showing why tit-for-tat and forgiving strategies win in repeated games. It extends the ideas to cooperation in evolution and conflict.

On Hacker News

HN commenters reach for it constantly as an approachable explanation of why cooperation and reciprocity are rational strategies.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 8 months · HN mentions 2023–2026

Topics

Probability & game theory Evolution & genetics

What people said

pants2 · 2026-04 · Strong recommendation
This Veritasium video is excellent, and makes the argument that there is something intrinsic in mathematics (game theory) that encourages prosocial behavior. [VIDEO]
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hughesjj · 2024-01 · Strong recommendation
Veratasium just made an approachable video on this subject recently, I definitely recommend. It rebukes the whole 'oh no I just heard what a Nash equilibrium is and now I'm worried cooperation is impossible long term' fears some people interpret his thought experiment (prisoners dillema) to have. Tldr it's rare that you can't coordinate, communicate, or have exactly one trial. [VIDEO]
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trinsic2 · 2026-02 · Recommendation
> it's no longer a matter of choice, you have to do it too You know, there are plenty of examples where people in positions of power choose different paths of escalation. I doesn't always need to be liner tit for tat. Some times you need to step back and look at the larger picture and decide of the escalation is worth the risk for all of humanity. There is a video about game theory [0] that describes this problem very clearly. You have better outcomes when you make decisions outside the direct course of escalation. Please don't talk in absolutes about these things, you have an opinion. I accept that, but its not as black and white as you think [0]: [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

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