2010

S9.E1 ∙ MrBeast's $1,000,000 Dilemma

Sun, Feb 03, 2019

Let's say, hypothetically, that famous YouTuber MrBeast created a free $1,000,000 contest in which anyone could play, but the only chance for a winner is if one and only one person entered. What would you do? Would you enter and hope you were the only one? Would you enter just to destroy another person's chances? Would you not bother at all because you were so sure tons of other people would try? And here's the real question: Is it even possible to win this game? Welcome to the Platonia Dilemma, in which Kevin examines a mind-blowing logic game and uncovers the only possible pathway to victory: superrationality.

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S9.E2 ∙ A Problem You'll Never Solve

Sun, Feb 24, 2019

Newcomb's Paradox has confounded philosophers, mathematicians, and game players for over 50 years. The problem is simple: You can take Box A, which contains $1,000, and Box B, which contains either $0 or $1,000,000, or you can just take Box B. The right choice seems obvious -- but there's a catch. Before you play, an omniscient being has predicted whether you'd take both Box A and Box B or only Box B. If he's predicted that you'll take both, he's put $0 in Box B. If he predicts that you'll only take Box B, he's put $1,000,000 inside. So... what do you do? I explore the two approaches to this problem, one based on the math of expected utility and the other based on a logical dominance principle. Newcomb's Paradox raises questions about free will and determinism as it explores whether a problem with no solution might be easier than a problem with two perfectly valid contradictory solutions.

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S9.E3 ∙ The Game That Learns

Sun, Mar 17, 2019

By the 1950s, science fiction was beginning to become reality: machines didn't just calculate; they began to learn. Machine calculating was out. Machine learning was in. But we had to start small.

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S9.E4 ∙ The Game You Quit

Sun, Mar 24, 2019

By choosing to watch this video, you've already won.. the game of quitting.

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S9.E5 ∙ 1,000 Birds In A Truck Riddle

Sun, Apr 07, 2019

Observation is the core of our understanding of science and applied math. But what happens when what we see isn't what we actually get? Or when we can't see at all?

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S9.E6 ∙ The Game That Never Ends

Sun, Apr 21, 2019

We play two-player games all day, every day, and our lives are a real-time exercise in game theory. We work out how to make the best move based not only on what we want the outcome to be, but also based on how we think the other player is going to act. Since they're usually going through the same rough thought process -- sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously -- we're embroiled in a constant series of games with all of us wanting to win.

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S9.E7 ∙ The 100 Prisoners Puzzle

Sun, May 12, 2019

What if 100 of our favorite YouTube channels faced sudden, total demonetization of their channels -- and the only way to save them was to play a game of chance that required all 100 YouTubers to win what amounts to a coin flip?

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S9.E8 ∙ The Game You Win by Losing (Parrondo's Paradox)

Mon, May 27, 2019

An exploration of how to exploit Parrondo's paradox in gaming.

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S9.E9 ∙ The Nugget Algorithm

Sun, Jun 23, 2019

The Frobenius Number -- also called the McNugget Number -- is the highest number you can't make out of two integers that have a greatest common divisor of 1. This late 19th-century math quirk was examined by Ferdinand Frobenius and expanded on by JJ Sylvester, but it came to public consciousness by examining the impossible orders of McDonald's McNuggets in the United Kingdom.

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S9.E10 ∙ The Infinite Money Paradox

Tue, Jul 16, 2019

Not a real offer. Deciding whether to play a game is usually very easy... you crunch the numbers and if they work in your favor, you play. If they don't, you shouldn't. Mathematical case closed. But what happens when the math of a game tells you that you have access to infinite wealth and unlimited expected value and real life tells you not to play? Enter: The St. Petersburg Paradox.

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S9.E11 ∙ The Battleship Algorithm

Sun, Aug 11, 2019

Random guessing in Battleship requires a lot of guesses and you will probably lose before trying them all because you opponent likely has some better strategies.

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S9.E12 ∙ The Dot Game that Breaks Your Brain

Sun, Aug 25, 2019

In 1967 John Conway and Michael Paterson drew two dots, drew a line between them and created, Sprouts, a game as challenging as chess or go. Although it is thought all levels of the game are solved in relatively few moves, the human mind and computers can only master the first two or three levels..

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S9.E13 ∙ Can Pasta Hold Your Weight?

Sun, Sep 29, 2019

Every boy grows up chasing the same dream... to fly to a beautiful villa in Rome, Italy to build a pasta chair out of noodles utilizing a team of international spaghetti-building superstars. Well, every boy doesn't, but I did. And that dream came true. Our goal was clear: we needed to build a pasta chair that would hold my weight, and we had to do it in just a few days.

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S9.E14 ∙ This Is NOT 50/50

Mon, Oct 14, 2019

A seemly fair non-transitive game can offer a big advantage to one of the players.

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S9.E15 ∙ The Hardest Easy Game

Sun, Nov 03, 2019

The L-game is a four-piece, two-player game played on a four by four board that permits just two moves yet is indeterminate. In his turn a player could have as few as one or nearly 200 legal moves. Strategic thinking is crucial which is what the game is intended to teach.

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S9.E16 ∙ Should You Switch? NO!

Sun, Nov 24, 2019

Not a real offer, for educational purposes only. I don't have two envelopes filled with money. I don't have any envelopes OR any money.

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S9.E17 ∙ Surviving the Deadliest Game

Mon, Dec 16, 2019

If you find yourself in a game of Russian Roulette, first, quit immediately. But if you find yourself in the second round with two bullets in the cylinders the proper placement or those bullets could give you a slight advantage.

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