One concept that shows up in a lot of the notes I was filing yesterday is the idea of the "Prisoner's Dilemma". My notes on the subject look like this:
Did you get that? Probably not, so a better explanation goes like this. The Prisoner's Dilemma is a metaphor for how two parties deal with one another. It starts with two prisoners who are arrested and interrogated separately. You can kind of see the results in the drawing above-- the best solution is for neither of them to give away any information. If they both keep their mouth shut (cooperate), the prosecution has little to work with and they only get a year of jail time each. If they both go to the opposite extreme and rat the other out (defect), they each get 5 years. However, the worst option is if one cooperates and the other one defects. The one who turns state's witness (defects) gets off completely scot free, while the one who holds his tongue (cooperates) gets a life sentence. Because one prisoner doesn't know what the other will do, the rational choice for them is to turn on the other so the worst punishment they can get is 5 years and the best is freedom. If they don't talk, there's a chance that they'll get a life sentence.
