War Games
With all this talk of
konfrontasi and nationalist tendencies being stirred over a tiny speck in the Sulawesi Sea, I was amused when someone, an Indonesian, told me today that the currency used on Ambalat is the Malaysian ringgit.
I don't know whether this is true or not; I was under the impression that no-one actually lived there, let alone traded.
Whatever, it did get me thinking about war games.
With the Indonesian armed forces pleading poverty, perhaps they should train their élite forces to use
combat unicycles.
It has been observed that a proportion of the enemy soldiers on realizing that they are under attack by soldiers on unicycles will cease their combat activities and stare in disbelief, they are then highly susceptible to return fire.The Indonesian Navy might also consider replenishing their fleet with
ships built of ice. The idea's not new; Lord Mountbatten and Churchill thought of using them in World War II.
If you consider this to be a frivolous approach to what is, after all, a serious matter, then consider the theory behind war games:
Rationally Justifiable Play and the Theory of Non-cooperative Games.
This paper defines the concept of a justifiable strategy, that of a justification theory (which shows strategies to be justifiable) and that of a complete justification theory (which for every strategy shows whether it is justifiable or not). An impossibility result is proved, showing that there can be no complete justification theory that includes the assumptions of expected utility maximization, common knowledge, and caution. Copyright 1994 by Royal Economic Society.And if that seems too obvious, then take a look at the
upside-down world of co-operative games.
Almost all children's games - the games we teach children and the games children invent - have a common factor. They are preparations for an adult world. More often than not this adult world is based on competition. Have fun,
serious fun.
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