Algorithmic Game Theory, Lecture 1 (Introduction)
Theme 1. Designing systems for strategic participants with a goal in mind, aka mechanism design
Theme 2. For existing games, when is selfish behaviour benign? gives example of Braess paradox, kind of like Prisioner's dilemma.. –> selfish behaviour by everybody doesn't always give the best thing for anybody/everybody <> Price of anarchy. Want to study the conditions under which the price of anarchy is close to 1, so that selfish behaviour gives close to optimal performance.
when are other behavioural models needed? beyond shortsighted selfishness. See Game theory, weakened assumptions In a sense, a weak interpretation of selfishness appears tautological: an agent will do what it thinks it should be best to do.