Euroshiur: Professor Robert Aumann - Middle Eastern Games

[Kurtlane]

This speech is one spark of sanity in an insane world.

[LucBertolotti]

if Prof.Aumann is right, then the conclusion is that peace is an unstabble equilibrium

[maxdelbruck]

Very good.

[sandmansea]

so if you want to love jews then you should be ready to hate them,woops jews are not loved

[warmperson2007]

"Perhaps my [dynamite] factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses: on the day that two army corps can mutually annihilate each other in a second, all civilised nations will surely recoil with horror and disband their troops." A. Nobel in a letter to peace activist Bertha Von Suttner. Nobel did not live long enough to experience the First World War and to see how wrong his conception was. Let's wish that Prof Aumann is not doing the same mistake.

[gamalieli]

Actually the cold war never turned into hot war because the Americans had nuclear weapons and that deterred the Russians from using theirs. So Nobel had a point. The problem is that war can be fought through proxies. The other problem is when one side has the dynamite and the other doesn't. Russia has missile defense systems now which may make it impossible for American nuclear weapons to get through. When that happens there will be war. That my friend is a lesson from Game Theory.

[warmperson2007]

1. The bloodbath of WW1 proved that Alfred Nobel's assumption were wrong.

2. By the way, you should be carefull about what you say because it could be easily turned as an argument for Israel's ennemies -Iran or any of the Arab countries- to nuclear weapons.

3. I am not against prof Aumann. I believe that Israel needs radicals like him, along with "one state solution" radicals like Prof Ilan Pappe.

[warmperson2007]

Today Israel has the "dynamite" and the other side doesn't. Personally I am afraid that war will come precisely when the other side acquires the "dynamite". Therefore I hope that prof. Aumann is absolutely right in his thinking especially in his statement that people who fight wars are rational.

[gamalieli]

Prof Aumann is not a radical. You are the radical. That's why his statements seem radical to you.

[gamalieli]

warmperson2007, The point that you missed here is that game theory says Netanyahu is right. It says that what left wingers consider hard line politics that will bring war will actually bring peace. The problem with you is that you can't see the science because of your bias my friend.

[warmperson2007]

Unless you are ignorant you know as well as me that this lecture has nothing to do with the theory of games. Furthemore, the views expressed are not new. Alfred Nobel himself, expressed those views in a few lectures given in 1880, regarding the benefits of the use of dynamite for military purposes. It was a justification following the heavy criticism he encountered for signing contracts with weapon manufacturers.

[gamalieli]

This lecture has everything to do with the theory of games. I'm sorry but Robert Aumann won the Nobel Prize in Game Theory, what did you win you foolish would be expert?

[warmperson2007]

Prof. Aumann won the Nobel price precisely because his thinking was in line with Afred Nobel's thinking. Alfred Nobel's instruction was to give the price "in an ideal direction". The formulation is cryptic and is still causing much confusion. I guess that this time, the Nobel committee has decided that a thinking so close to Alfred Nobel's own thinking could only be considered as the "ideal direction". And saying this doesn't mean I do not respect Prof Aumann. In fact I do respect him a lot.

[gamalieli]

Today the Palestinian Arabs have the rockets. The Israelis could shoot rockets back but they're to humane to do so. Today the Palestinian have the suicide bomb vests. So there already is a war going on.

[warmperson2007]

Nice guy! But I watched this video expecting to get some scientific knowledge and here he is, expressing typical hard-line Israeli politics... I didn't need to watch him to hear this. I could have heard it from Natanyahu etc.

[bakkman]

b-o-r-i-n-g-!-!-!

[ygemara]

Beautiful! But doesn't really explain game theory.

[mar79879]

Euroshiur: Professor Robert Aumann - Middle Eastern Games

[Schnabel87]

Very brilliant, funny, and laid back guy. You go, 'Bert!