Message Boards Message Boards

6
|
6614 Views
|
27 Replies
|
22 Total Likes
View groups...
Share
Share this post:
GROUPS:
Wolfram U

[WSG23] Daily Study Group: Field Theory of Games

We are thrilled to have Dr. Gerald Thomas leading a Daily Study Group on the field theory of games starting October 2, 2023.

Join Dr. Thomas and a group of fellow learners to explore a computational approach to economics and business using the field theory of games. See how game theory can be extended with ideas from geometry, physics and engineering to include new dynamics. Discussions will include applied examples from economics to give students insight into the ways a systems engineering approach can be used to understand how decisions are made.

No prior knowledge of game theory or Wolfram Language is assumed, so a brief introduction to both topics will be provided.

REGISTER HERE

Please feel free to use this thread to collaborate and share ideas, materials and links to other resources with fellow learners.

enter image description here
POSTED BY: John McNally
27 Replies
Sort By:
Stephan Schwill
Stephan Schwill
Posted 3 months ago

I wanted to watch and study the recorded class. But the download link for the notebooks does not work. Can you please fix this. Many thanks -S
POSTED BY: Stephan Schwill

Hi Stephan, sorry for the inconvenience, I believe an updated link was sent to you for downloading the materials. Here is that link again: https://wolfr.am/1oLBHJtqF

POSTED BY: Cassidy Hinkle

How do I initialize and use the tool kit? what video/time shows this?
POSTED BY: Michael Grey

One option would be to run only the cells that you want at a given time. Another option would be to use the NotebookEvaluate function to evaluate all the cells in a given notebook. I believe the initialization was done before the presentation rather than live each time. NotebookEvaluate["PathToYourNotebook.nb"] would run all the cells in the notebook at the specified path. When learning new functionality, I think it is probably better to initialize only the cells you need. However, either is possible in principle.
POSTED BY: John McNally

Is there any error with the quiz, I tried a few times and I get the same messages, I checked some of the answers with Mathematica and at least the ones thar are not exclusive content of the DSG: Field Theory of Games should be correct. enter image description here
POSTED BY: José Dordá

Hi, I'm told that whatever issue may have caused this should be resolved. Let us know if anything else unexpected happens!
POSTED BY: John McNally
David Shobe
David Shobe
Posted 1 year ago

I wasn't feeling well this morning, so I am watching the recorded session Wednesday evening. Where do I download Wednesday's notebook file?
POSTED BY: David Shobe
David Shobe
David Shobe
Posted 1 year ago

Found it...NOT on the recording or anything on Wolfram's website, but in an email I got this afternoon but hadn't read yet. :-)
POSTED BY: David Shobe

Glad you've found it!
POSTED BY: John McNally
David Shobe
David Shobe
Posted 1 year ago

Does the constraint of using the normalized form put one at a disadvantage since there is no way (as far as I can tell) to react to surprises (as opposed to anticipated moves). Of course, using a move that wasn't already in the game is cheating in most circumstances, but in other circumstances, that's considered to be innovation.
POSTED BY: David Shobe

While the analysis shown in the study group uses the normal form of a game, it is often practically possible to turn the extensive form into normal form. You can see this outside reference for more on representing games in different forms: Link . As you point out, the model has to contain all possible moves to lead to correct conclusions. In either extensive form or normal form, if the person doing the modeling hasn't included a relevant possibility, then the conclusions won't be right. As long as you can assign a utility value to strategies that might be considered cheating in the colloquial sense of the word, they can be included as just another strategy available as a choice to agents.
POSTED BY: John McNally
Michael Grey
Michael Grey
Posted 1 year ago

General question. At the end of class today Prof. Thomas briefly mentioned that Field Theory of Games can be used in regards to electromagnetic fields in terms of payoffs.

I was wondering where I can find more info on that?

Also I was wondering if Field Theory of Games has been applied to the electromagnetic fields of the human physiology in anyway?

More generally for any other processes in the body, psychological processes, or in some general way of connecting psychological processes to a psychological data?

Have you thought about Field Theory of Games application with LLM's or visa versa?
POSTED BY: Michael Grey

I believe the comment was the other way around. The kind of mathematical analysis used in the field theory of games is common to modeling various physical systems (like electromagnetic fields). As for where to read more about this, one option is a series of books written by Dr. Thomas: Link . In the references of this MathWorld article, you can also find many places to read about classical game theory: Link .

While the formalism is similar to the way one might model electric fields, that's not to suggest any formal connection to bioelectric signals (at least not as far as I know).

As for connection between game theory and LLMs, there are interesting examples (such as this wolfram summer school project Link ) where you can explore how does an LLM behave as an agent in various games.
POSTED BY: John McNally
Bob Renninger
Bob Renninger
Posted 1 year ago

Will the notebooks in the download area be updated with the material that was actually presented?
POSTED BY: Bob Renninger

Yes, based on survey responses from day 1, it seems the audience is more advanced in Wolfram Language than the original plan for day 2 would have assumed. The Wolfram U team will get the new day 2 notebook cleaned up and change the handouts folder.
POSTED BY: John McNally
David Shobe
David Shobe
Posted 1 year ago

Does game theory include one-person games like solitaire?

POSTED BY: David Shobe

If there is one player, it is still possible to model the expected payoff given that player's utility function and any random events that may occur as part of the game. However, most of what is usually called game theory has to do with situations in which more than one agent is making decisions. The thing that makes something like solitaire complicated is not that there is more than one agent involved, it's that the decision tree at each step (in the extensive form of the game) has many branches.
POSTED BY: John McNally
David Shobe
David Shobe
Posted 1 year ago

I am trying to follow (more slowly) the example used in Monday's class. But although the notebook DPT-Toolkit.nb worked in class, I can't open it with my Mathematica 12.0. Is there another way of opening this notebook file? "Open with..." doesn't really suggest anything.
POSTED BY: David Shobe

Hi all. Don't all real games permanently play against/with nature as a player? Maybe that's the problem with climate change/economics that these players are considered isolated from reality.... maxwell's demon is the house! :D Is that a branch of game theory, games with a sort of "house player" ?
POSTED BY: Chris Forman

As with most things, you have to decide what to model and what not to model in a given situation. In brief, yes, it is possible to model dynamics where the choice of strategies available to one player (a "house" player in the context of common games of chance as you might put it) are completely different than the strategies available to other players. The central idea is that each "player" needs various strategy options and that each player has a view on what utility (or payoff) they gain given all participants' choice of strategies.
POSTED BY: John McNally

Perfect! Thanks.

POSTED BY: Lewis William Quaye

Got the materials now, thanks

POSTED BY: Richard Sweney

I got this message when I tried to download materials for this study group:

Oops! The page you're looking for can't be found.
POSTED BY: Richard Sweney

Should be fixed now, please try again!
POSTED BY: John McNally
Bob Renninger
Bob Renninger
Posted 1 year ago

The download link does not work
POSTED BY: Bob Renninger

This issue should now be fixed, if you try the link again.
POSTED BY: John McNally

Looking forward to the start of this Daily Study Group on Monday!
POSTED BY: Jamie Peterson
Reply to this discussion
Community posts can be styled and formatted using the Markdown syntax.
Tag limit exceeded
Note: Only the first five people you tag will receive an email notification; the other tagged names will appear as links to their profiles.
Reply Preview
Attachments
Remove
or Discard

Group Abstract Group Abstract