[Mr. Lim]

I don't see the similarity in scouting, but there is a tangent when it comes to alliance strategy.

There are a few criteria in the "Prisoner's Dilemma" which fail to apply to the FIRST competition.

1) No team can benefit from defection: An alliance is scored as a whole group, not as individual teams. A team who defects from their alliance only hurts themselves and their partners. The Prisoner's Dilemma states that the defecting team gains a considerable advantage over those who choose to co-operate. This is NOT the case in FIRST, and a defecting team just hurts everyone on the alliance, including themselves.

2) All teams co-operating is the most beneficial outcome for all teams: Whereas the Prisoner's Dilemma states that the most beneficial outcome for your team would be if you defect when the rest of your alliance chooses to co-operate. Again, this is not the case, as there is no advantage gained in defecting from your alliance. Three teams working together is always better than having one or two robots not on the same page.

2) The Prisoner's Dilemma also states that the case of everyone defecting is more advantageous than the cases of partial co-operation, where your team has chosen to co-operate. Again, this is NOT true. Partial co-operation will again be more beneficial than complete defection within an alliance.

I guess I'm not sure where you were really going with this, but that's about the only way I saw an application for the Prisoner's Dilemma in FIRST.

-SlimBoJones...