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Deep Mind – Reflection #6 — When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

Date: November 11, 2025
Book: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… — Steven Pinker
Current Position: Chapter 3 – “Fun and Games”

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Reflection

I’m about halfway through Chapter 3, Fun and Games, and Pinker’s focus tonight is on the development of game theory — starting with its 1944 origins in the work of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern.

He walks through the major frameworks — the Coordination Dilemma, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, the Stag Hunt, the Trust Game, and the Nash Equilibrium — exploring how each illustrates rational actors trying to maximize outcomes within shared uncertainty.

It’s dizzying in places, as he moves quickly from one model to another, but his summaries are so sharp that you do end up keeping up. Once again, he’s proving that complexity doesn’t have to mean confusion.

I’m starting to see how deeply these ideas shape our daily world — politics, negotiation, even social cooperation. The “games” may sound academic, but they describe real behavior we live with every day.

6 hours and 13 minutes to go, and it’s already one of the most stimulating reads in a long time.

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✅ Tags:
#DeepMindSeries #PinkerReadings #WhenEveryoneKnows #GameTheory #AppliedRationality #ReadingReflection