Daniel Rockmore, Professor, Math and Computer Science, Director, Neukom Institute for Computational Science, William H. Neukom 1964 Distinguished Professor of Computational Science, Member, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Abstract: The Second Amendment of The Constitution of the United States, famously declares that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." While it is a right, it is also a choice. In this talk I will present some new work with Dartmouth colleagues Feng Fu and Michael Herron that analyzes this choice using a simple evolutionary game theoretic approach. Our model may also be useful for suggesting interventions for reducing the current level of gun ownership in the United States which can be framed as a version of the Tragedy of the Commons.