Rock, Paper, and Scissors

Rock-paper-scissors combines cyclic payoffs with strategic prediction. Dennett emphasizes how concealed choices and an opponent's information affect exploitability, including the difference between a determined sequence and one the opponent can anticipate.

The game's cyclic payoffs mean no fixed move defeats every alternative. Against an opponent who can anticipate the next move, even a balanced-looking sequence can be exploitable. Dennett uses the game to examine strategic predictability, information access, and why another agent's attempts to anticipate us change the problem.

Randomization matters through what the opponent can know and exploit. A precomputed sequence can be unpredictable to someone who cannot access it, while a genuinely random choice loses its protection once revealed before the opponent acts. The broader lesson concerns strategic information, not a requirement to make every personal decision random.

When to use it

Use when learning about mixed strategies, evaluating competitive agents, or clarifying the relationship between determinism and strategic predictability.

How it can help

Inspect payoff relationships, conditional patterns, and information access. Distinguish a balanced distribution from an unpredictable next choice.