Tit for Tat
In the early 60s, Robert Axelrod was a math major messing around with refrigerator-sized computers. Then a dramatic global crisis made him wonder about the space between a rock and a hard place, and whether being good may be a good strategy. With help from Andrew Zolli and Steve Strogatz, we tackle the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic thought experiment, and learn about a simple strategy to navigate the waters of cooperation and betrayal. Then Axelrod, along with Stanley Weintraub, takes us back to the trenches of World War I, to the winter of 1914, and an unlikely Christmas party along the Western Front.
- Duration
- 27m
- Broadcast on
- 17 Sep 2019
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
In the early 60s, Robert Axelrod was a math major messing around with refrigerator-sized computers. Then a dramatic global crisis made him wonder about the space between a rock and a hard place, and whether being good may be a good strategy. With help from Andrew Zolli and Steve Strogatz, we tackle the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic thought experiment, and learn about a simple strategy to navigate the waters of cooperation and betrayal. Then Axelrod, along with Stanley Weintraub, takes us back to the trenches of World War I, to the winter of 1914, and an unlikely Christmas party along the Western Front.
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RIDILEB is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trade-in. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trade-in of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, and eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. Hey, this is Radio Lab. I'm Robert Grohlwich. Oh. Yes. Would you like to say our topic, Robert? Our topic today is goodness. Hey, I'm Chad. So last week, we played you a show that is one of our all-time favorites. It was three different stories about different kinds of collisions between people, between moral philosophies, between right and wrong, even right and left. Anyhow, this week, we want to continue the thoughts we had going on in that show for one more step. We're going to play you part of a different show that takes the strategies that came up in those kinds of showdowns last week, between people, and plays them out on a geopolitical scale. Grand global strategy. Yes. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. And we're going to tell you a really cool story we think that begins with this guy. My name is Robert Axelrod. I'm the Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding in the Department of Political Science and the Ford School of Public Policy of the University of Michigan. Wow. I know that's a mouth. That was like your dean was like looking over your sister. Say it all. Well, you know, you could just say I'm a professor of public policy and political science or something. Well, but before he was all of that, Axelrod, when he was in high school, he was one of those guys who just loved computers. Well, yes, in '59, 1960, I hung around the Northwestern University Computer Center. '59? '60. So were those large pizzas of furniture and refrigerated buildings? They were. In fact, the whole campus had one computer and they let me use it for 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. And what would you do with the computer?
Transcription truncated.
In the early 60s, Robert Axelrod was a math major messing around with refrigerator-sized computers. Then a dramatic global crisis made him wonder about the space between a rock and a hard place, and whether being good may be a good strategy. With help from Andrew Zolli and Steve Strogatz, we tackle the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic thought experiment, and learn about a simple strategy to navigate the waters of cooperation and betrayal. Then Axelrod, along with Stanley Weintraub, takes us back to the trenches of World War I, to the winter of 1914, and an unlikely Christmas party along the Western Front.