 "The guiding idea of strategic equilibrium could run up against its limits. Photo: iSTOCK")
Humanity has a method for trying to prevent new technologies from getting out of hand: Explore the possible negative consequences, involving all parties affected and come to some agreement on ways to mitigate them. New research, though, suggests that the accelerating pace of change could soon render this approach ineffective.
People use laws, social norms and international agreements to reap the benefits of technology while minimising undesirable things like environmental damage. In aiming to find such rules of behaviour, we often take inspiration from what game theorists call a Nash equilibrium, named after the mathematician and economist John Nash.
People use laws, social norms and international agreements to reap the benefits of technology while minimising undesirable things like environmental damage. In aiming to find such rules of behaviour, we often take inspiration from what game theorists call a Nash equilibrium, named after the mathematician and economist John Nash.
