The Games People play..
Many thanks to Blockbuster for
1. The End of Late fees
2. The Monthly pass, courtesy of which I have seen almost every A,B,C-Grade movies ever dished out by Hollywood.
Infact, I'm in to movie-reruns now. I've been picking up movies which i've previously seen and enjoyed, seen but need to refresh the lead role's punch lines, tried to see but slept through. I'd picked up 'Beautiful mind' on one such occasion. As most of you know, its a brilliant movie, and I still believe Russell crowe deserved an Oscar for his acting in this movie than for his portrayal of Maximus in Gladiator(BTW..I loved the movie). Getting back to the movie, its about the legendary John Nash, whom I will always remember more for his letter of his recommendation, than for his brillant work in game theory.
Well, who wouldnt want a letter of recommendation that just had "This man is a genius". Mine went 'I know Sunil for the last.....hardworking,sincere..........admit him with aid...yeah with AID".
OK, absurd as it may sound, I was really 'inspired' by the movie, and I decided to take up a course in Game Theory. My decision to watch a movie over deciding courses to register for the semester had, as Nash would have put it, 'paidoff'.The course itself is really interesting and to top it, its being handled by one of the best Professors that I've ever had.(Prof.Wayne Bialas). Here's are some interesting titbits from his class.
- Game theory is so popular thanks to a) Von Neumann b) John Nash c) Robert McNamara d) 'Beautiful Mind' - the movie and e) The other (un)fortunate mathematicians who choose to work on it.
- Robert McNamara's claim to fame : Advised the Kennedy Govt to increase the number of nuclear war heads. This, he predicted, would also encourage the soviets to increase their warheads thereby neutralizing the nuclear power of both countries. The argument being, If I had one nuclear war head, and you had none, I would be at an advantage. But if we both had 100 Warheads, then we're better off not using them.
- Unfortunately, the above logic still holds true. And this implies nuclear disarmament will be an unrealized dream.
Well, I'll leave it at that. BTW, for the movie buff, here's a list of movies which use game theory.
1. The End of Late fees
2. The Monthly pass, courtesy of which I have seen almost every A,B,C-Grade movies ever dished out by Hollywood.
Infact, I'm in to movie-reruns now. I've been picking up movies which i've previously seen and enjoyed, seen but need to refresh the lead role's punch lines, tried to see but slept through. I'd picked up 'Beautiful mind' on one such occasion. As most of you know, its a brilliant movie, and I still believe Russell crowe deserved an Oscar for his acting in this movie than for his portrayal of Maximus in Gladiator(BTW..I loved the movie). Getting back to the movie, its about the legendary John Nash, whom I will always remember more for his letter of his recommendation, than for his brillant work in game theory.
Well, who wouldnt want a letter of recommendation that just had "This man is a genius". Mine went 'I know Sunil for the last.....hardworking,sincere..........admit him with aid...yeah with AID".
OK, absurd as it may sound, I was really 'inspired' by the movie, and I decided to take up a course in Game Theory. My decision to watch a movie over deciding courses to register for the semester had, as Nash would have put it, 'paidoff'.The course itself is really interesting and to top it, its being handled by one of the best Professors that I've ever had.(Prof.Wayne Bialas). Here's are some interesting titbits from his class.
- Game theory is so popular thanks to a) Von Neumann b) John Nash c) Robert McNamara d) 'Beautiful Mind' - the movie and e) The other (un)fortunate mathematicians who choose to work on it.
- Robert McNamara's claim to fame : Advised the Kennedy Govt to increase the number of nuclear war heads. This, he predicted, would also encourage the soviets to increase their warheads thereby neutralizing the nuclear power of both countries. The argument being, If I had one nuclear war head, and you had none, I would be at an advantage. But if we both had 100 Warheads, then we're better off not using them.
- Unfortunately, the above logic still holds true. And this implies nuclear disarmament will be an unrealized dream.
Well, I'll leave it at that. BTW, for the movie buff, here's a list of movies which use game theory.
posted by ledsuki at 2:10 AM
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