Risk-as-Pleasure
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Ackerman differentiates between simple play and deep play [Deep: The
most intense or extreme part—^profoundly absorbed and immersed^®]. Deep play
is a state of transcendence, vAiich alters our notion of time, space, and spirit,
bringing out our “best selves”—a state of unselfconscious engagement with our
environment^ \ He also links play with risk. Risk drives us forward, challenges
our sense of the logical, the status quo. The act of risk-taking is empowering and
enabling, giving us pleasure.
Risk-as-Pleasure: Risk-as-Necessity
Risk is defined as the potential loss or harm arising from an intended
action. We may be either risk averse or loss averse. Kahneman^^ speaks of a
“delusionary optimism” in association with loss aversion: “people are generally
timid and dislike risk—^they are more prudent than they think they are—^they
think too small.” “Bounded rationality” is the norm in our decision-making,
especially during periods of uncertainty. Most of the time we don’t know that
we’re taking risks. Fate is going to be kind to ns is the self-perception in
gauging our own wellbeing. Kahneman cites the flmdamental example of the 2
to 2.5 odds gamble, and demonstrates that the level of willingness to participate
is predictable by proportion. In the community, players take the highest risk and
property owners die lowest.
Games People Play: Game Theory and its Broad Context
Game Theory is a mathematical theory dealing with game-like
situations in which participants wish to maximize some property (such as utility)
in positions of uncertainty, not only with respect to the state of nature but also
the actions of other players wiiose interests may be opposed or parallel to those
of the participant. Typically, when deciding what to do, one must predict the
actions of others with die knowledge that they themselves, when deciding which
action to perform, will predict the actions of others including oneself.
Complexity may be increased by allowing coalitions between players. Game
Theory has been used to analyze and calculate best possible strategies in game
like situations such as business, war, politics, and social activities. It has been
extensively developed in the 20th century by John Von Neumann (1903-57) and
Oskar Morgenstem (1902-).
There is a relationship to decision theory, viz.: a theory whose subject
matter is the situations in which a decision problem arises, a situation in which
one may be typically faced with a set of alternative actions and imcertainty as to
the consequences of all or some of these actions. The problem is in deciding
which action to undertake, that is, which action is most rational relative to the
information available.
One common approach is to assign probabilities to the occurrence of
the consequences of each action, estimate utilities (welfare, happiness, etc.)
associated with each consequence, and to select as most rational the action with