19259 - Decision Theory is not game Theory

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Vicky Baklessi

Decision Theory is not Game Theory. The first is a special case of the second, when there is only a single player. It is therefore interesting to find individuals who always say that they belong to a team and that their words are governed by Game Theory, while in practice they act as if there was just the Decision Theory. In essence, this practically means that it is not even necessary to declare that you will change everything on your own, when you know that the contribution of the other players that function rationally as well will have an impact on the result. Additionally, it is not necessary to say that you participate to the production of a work, because you simply belong to a team and only that. To belong to a team means that you have obligations, otherwise the company is sufficient for you. The team produces a collective work and not a multiple individual one. Because the optimal collective solution is not necessarily relevant to the optimal individual solution. So if your objective is to take advantage of a team, while you don’t make any use of your abilities, you don’t have to persuade us. It won’t happen. The team is not only a whole, it also has an internal act and it is this which produces the whole team. For this reason the team is also a link of freedom.