A Conversation with the Gamesman: The Haifa Lab's Segev Wasserkrug

This is a podcast episode titled, A Conversation with the Gamesman: The Haifa Lab's Segev Wasserkrug. The summary for this episode is: <p>Segev was born in Israel, in the capital city of Jerusalem, but then moved around a lot, spending three of his early years on a kibbutz in northern Israel and then six years in South Africa. He became hooked on computer science after watching the 1983 film WarGames, in which an AI&nbsp; system almost starts a nuclear war. Matthew Broderick, the computer nerd star of the movie, convinces the AI that sometimes not winning leads to a better outcome than winning, and nuclear war is averted. &nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In this episode of "On Not Knowing" we listen to Segev as he tells us how the theme of the movie has become a persistent theme in his own research. Along the way, we learn about some of the key concepts in so-called non zero-sum games, in other words games where one party's win does not necessarily mean another party's loss, and vice versa.</p><p>Some recommendations from Segev:</p><p><a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/aumann-lecture.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert Aumann's lecture upon receiving the Nobel prize for his work on game theory</a></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enders-Ender-Quintet-Orson-Scott/dp/0765378485/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ender's game</a> by Orson Scott Card&nbsp;</p><p>The 1983 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WarGames</a>, starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy</p>