[Foundation-l] GFDL and relicensing

Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton at gmail.com
Fri Nov 23 16:46:04 UTC 2007


> To put it another way, if losing £100 is infinitely bad, then you'd
> never engage in any risk, no matter how small, which had any chance of
> leading to such a result.  This means, in essence, you'd never do
> anything at all.

I disagree that every action has a chance of losing everything you
own. Nevertheless, we're not talking about real life, we're talking
abstractly - you were asking about the game theory perspective. Game
theory doesn't assign values to outcomes, it just gives results based
on the values you assume. You can assume any values you like. If you
assume the value of money is logarithmic, there is a definite
difference between risks and gains, therefore they are not the same
from a game theoretic point of view. From the point of view of a given
value system, they might be equivalent or they might not, but that's
part of the value system, not of game theory.

For a more realistic value system that displays the same behaviour,
assume there is a certain amount of money you need to live (to buy
food, for example). If you have less than that, you die, if you have
more than that, you get a few luxuries. It's is reasonable to assert
that no amount of luxuries is worth death (plenty of people would
disagree, but it's still reasonable). (This is similar to the advice
given to casino goers of keeping their taxi fare home in a different
pocket to their gambling money - however sure you are of a bet, it's
not worth risking not being able to get home.)


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