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Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Ken Binmore
01/06/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Oxford University Press. 184 page illustrated and indexed paperback. Price £ 6.99 (UK), $ 9.95 (US). ISBN: 978-0-19-921846-2. Buy Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction in the USA - or Buy Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction in the UK  check out websites: www.oup.com and www.oup.co.uk/vsi
You can blame Richard Dawkins' book 'The Selfish Gene' for getting me a little more interested in 'Game Theory'. The real problem was finding a book that would give me the bones of the subject, let alone be able to fit it into my reading schedule, which you might have noticed is a little on the busy side. This book by Ken Binmore fitted the subject as its not written by a layman on the subject and Oxford University Press a reputable publisher. Figuring that, I reckoned I should come away reasonably informed on the subject.
There were several reasons why I took an interest in Game Theory. Key amongst them is not knowing too much about the subject. I knew it had something to do with understanding odds and how people played with certain subjects just not how far it goes with every day life. As a fiction writer, its just another string I can add to my knowledge.
In many ways, writing stories is about decision-making or examining the odds in favour of certain decisions. You've no doubt read this in deBono's lateral thinking books or even earlier General Semantics which got there first in multi-ordinal thinking. Game Theory is more the statistical odds in different types of human behaviour whether the subjects know they are applying it or not. It's like a game of chess where you can anticipate the kinds of moves each opponent can make providing you figure out what type they are and prepared to play against type yourself.
In that respect alone it becomes of immediate interest, especially if you want to create characters who diverge from each other. All too often, its easy for new writers to have characters that will make similar decisions to each other simply because they haven't learnt how to change their internal template when playing other people. Although this book isn't really designed for fiction writers, it does give an insight into the way of thinking that makes for a 'hawk' or 'dove' personality. This doesn't mean you take after the birds but more as whether your decision-making is aggressive or passive.
I suspect it will take more than one read of this book just to take it all in. What it should do is make you aware of your own decision-making and not expect other people to act as you do. Whether it will change your own behaviour patterns or just understand how your 'opponents' are working will be up to the individual. However, this book covers all the basic patterns associated with Game Theory from Nash to Newcomb to the Prisoner's Paradox. Insightful and worth spending a few hours digesting.
GF Willmetts
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