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Prisoner's Dilemma Application to Problem of Commons

The prisoner's dilemma is related to the problem of the commons because they both involve individuals or entities which are forced into making choices which affect one another. In an example of the prisoner's dilemma, as presented by David G. Myers, each of two guilty prisoners has three choices--confess and lower the penalty he faces, not confess and take the chance that the other will confess and receive the lower sentence while the first receives a severe sentence, or not confess and hope the other does not confess as well in which case both will receive the lowest sentence possible. As Myers writes, "This dilemma often raps each one in a maddening predicament in which both realize they could mutually profit but, mistrusting one another, become 'locked in' to not cooperating." Most importantly, with respect to the question of the commons, "In such dilemmas, the unbridled pursuit of self-interest can be detrimental" (Myers 570).

Applying the prisoner's dilemma to the commons, Myers writes that individuals and nations are in the same predicament--they are forced to make decisions and take actions which can either improve their respective positions with respect to the environment and limited resources or make those positions worse. Myers defines the commons as "air, water, whales, cookies, or any shared and limited resource" (571) which will be affected by the decisions and actions of the entities which use that resource: "If all use the resource in moderation, it may replenish itself as rapidly as it is harvested" (571). If the entities use the resource selfishly or unwisely, then the resource will be depleted and all will suffer as a result, creating the "tragedy of the commons" (571).

The problem of the commons, then, is the problem of how to use the environment and its natural resources, how to manage the ecology of a region or of the planet, in such a way that the shared resources are not depleted but rather are allowed to...

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Prisoner's Dilemma Application to Problem of Commons. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 00:45, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689731.html