ESP Biography

There are some problems that no computer program can solve. Not just problems like "compose a great symphony" or “print the meaning of life" -- specific, well-defined, and surprisingly natural computational problems for which we can prove mathematically that no program can solve them. In this course, we will see some of these problems; along the way, we will also discover precisely what we mean by "program", and we will explore some wacky and probably counter-intuitive facts about infinity.

There are some problems that no computer program can solve. Not just problems like “compose a great symphony” or “print the meaning of life” -- specific, well-defined, and surprisingly natural computational problems for which we can prove mathematically that no program can solve them. In this course, we will see some of these problems; along the way, we will also discover precisely what we mean by “program”, and we will explore some wacky and probably counter-intuitive facts about infinity.

There are some problems that no computer program can solve. Not just problems like "compose a great symphony" or "print the meaning of life" -- specific, well-defined, and surprisingly natural computational problems for which we can prove mathematically that no program can solve them. In this course, we will see some of these problems; along the way, we will also discover precisely what we mean by "program", and we will explore some wacky and probably counter-intuitive facts about infinity.

You and a total stranger are being held prisoner, each in isolation, by the most fearsome kind of captor: the curious behavioral economist. He offers you a choice: betray your fellow prisoner, or keep silent. If both prisoners remain silent, he will release them after a month; if only one party betrays the other, the former goes free immediately and the latter is imprisoned for a year; and if both parties betray each other, they both remain captive for six months. What would you do? Starting with the classic example of the prisoner's dilemma, we will explore a variety of idealized games with surprisingly common real-world applications. Along the way, we will learn about expected utility, equilibria, cooperation, signaling, iterated games, common knowledge, and many other things. Students will get a chance to play games with each other during the seminar, and a plethora of 2x2 square diagrams will be drawn on the board.