Stag

Unfortunately, we are not living in a world of alternative physics. If all troops try to expand, the military system could not sustain.

Yes, some of you may recognize, this is a variant of prisoners’ dilemma in game theory. To go one step further, the situation is akin to the “stag hunt” game analyzed by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

For those who are not familiar with the science of choice and strategy, let me explain briefly: In the stag hunt, if everyone works together to capture the stag, they succeed and all eat well. However, if some hunters come across a hare and are sidetracked to chase after hares, there will not be enough hunters to catch the stag. In that case, everyone will do better chasing after hares. The best strategy of the hunters as a groups is to go after the stage if and only if they can be confident that everyone else is behaving similarly. In other words, a hunter would prefer chasing hares if he has no confidence in what the others would do.