Cybernetics • Requisite Variety • Selection 12

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Jon Awbrey

Ashby now invites us to consider a series of games, beginning as follows.

Requisite Variety

11/3.   Play and outcome.  Let us therefore forget all about regulation and simply suppose that we are watching two players, R and D, who are engaged in a game.  We shall follow the fortunes of R, who is attempting to score an a.  The rules are as follows.  They have before them Table 11/3/1, which can be seen by both:

Ashby Cybernetics Table 11.3.1

D must play first, by selecting a number, and thus a particular row.  R, knowing this number, then selects a Greek letter, and thus a particular column.  The italic letter specified by the intersection of the row and column is the outcome.  If it is an a, R wins;  if not, R loses.

I’ll pause the play here and give readers a chance to contemplate strategies.

Reference

  • Ashby, W.R. (1956), An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman and Hall, London, UK.  Republished by Methuen and Company, London, UK, 1964.  Online.

cc: Cybernetics • Ontolog Forum • Structural Modeling • Systems Science

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