Saturday 3 March 2007

It's great to simply forget it all...

On a Saturday morning with the sun shining the world of OfSTED and the DfES seems so far away and so irrelevant. I was reading the Guardian today and there was an article about a BBC 2 documentary called 'The Trap'. The 'Prisoner's Dilemma' describes a world where everyday human relationships are built on self-centred suspicion and distrust. To test the theory a thinktank in California posed various dilemmas to pairs of colleagues where they could co-operate or betray each other. The theory predicted that they would choose betrayal because they couldn't trust the other person. Every time, however, they chose to co-operate.

The documentary argues that if you keep treating people as if they are selfish and calculating that is exactly what they will become. We will come to believe that we are those cold, strange, unloved and isolated beings. However, those of us who have been through the Pacific Institute programmes, 'Investment in Excellence', 'STEPS' or 'Go for It', know that it doesn't have to be that way and that we all can be brilliant, talented, gorgeous and wonderful.
Chris
P.S. The first episode of 'The Trap' is on Sunday 11 March on BBC2 at 9pm.

1 comment:

set said...

Welcome to 'game theory' Chris.

The default setting is for participant A to cast a nice opening move. Participant B either reciprocates the gesture or declines. It's the basis of many gameshows and a good example of maths getting to grips with human nature. Can we win on our own? We all know the answer to that. Anyway for a better insight visit...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory