The Prisoner's Dilemma by Sean Stuart O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page A

our human natures
.
    Stony as my path may be, I would rather have my burden than yours
.
    But I have recently witnessed an event here that I believe would interest you
.
    It has set me thinking and I believe I have created a game – yes, a game (but what is life if not a deadly game with all its competition
,
strategy, bluff and self-interest?) that will prove to you mathematically and empirically the interaction of good and ill, of co-operation and selfishness
.
    Come and play my game of life with me! I call it The Prisoner’s Dilemma
.
    I see nobody here and have only paltry help. So expect little to feed your body, but much to feed your mind
.
    Beware, you may not like the conclusions!
    I remain etc
,
    Dunbeath.’
    As David Hume finished reading, Smith lifted his eyes from the table. Hume had been delighted to see how deeply his objection to Smith’s reasoning was received by him and the total absorption that the young man had brought to listening to the letter. So many of Hume’s friends seemed to feel obliged to defend their views with an exuberant and noisy passion that it was refreshing for him to see someone be so open to a counter argument.
    But now Smith smiled openly as Hume set down the letter.
    â€˜What will you do?’ he asked.
    â€˜Well, I am due to be back in Dumfries with the Marquis of Annandale tomorrow. I am supposed to be tutoring him but I might as well be speaking to a sheep.’
    â€˜I heard his lordship was judged to be a lunatic.’
    â€˜Indeed he is. But should I exchange one certain madman that pays me well for an uncertain madman that I can be quite sure will not?’
    David Hume beamed at Smith as he finished, turning over the problem in his mind.
    â€˜Perhaps I can do both?’ he said finally.
    Then he rose and strode to the door. He opened it with a theatrical flourish and called out for his maid. As she appearedhe spoke loudly to her, half turning in the doorway so that Adam Smith could hear his answer.
    â€˜Elizabeth. Please tell Lord Dunbeath’s messenger that I am obliged to travel south to the Borders for a short time but that I shall come up to Caithness when I am free after that.’
    He thought for a moment.
    â€˜Please have him pass on my compliments to the earl and let him know that I should be with him in a month or so to play his new game with him.’
    * * * 
    James McLeish had walked to a high point in the dunes before he turned to look back at the lighted observatory. By moving away he had given himself a better angle from which he could see some of the room and he now watched as Dunbeath’s head moved about it, bending forward occasionally as if searching a table top.
    Was he looking for something, James thought bitterly to himself? A telescope, perhaps? His lips moved in a muttered vow as he looked again at Dunbeath.
    â€˜You bastard. I shall never forget you. Never. Not a day nor an hour will go by that I shall not be thinking of you. Believe me, the time will come when I shall pay you out in your own coin. Though I may have to wait fifty years, you will know me yet.’
    Then he turned and walked back towards the village.
    * * * 
    Elizabeth tripped briskly back to where Gordon McKay was finishing the supper she’d given him and passed on the reply that he should take back to the Castle of Beath the following morning. She then returned to the dining room with the port and fruit and removed the cloth.
    David Hume and his new friend sat in a comfortable silence as they cracked walnuts and sipped their port. These were the moments that Hume treasured most. To sit with a questioning and intelligent companion and press each other on the workings of the human mind was the greatest of his many pleasures. He looked at Adam Smith’s ingenuous face, apparently turning over some stray thought in his mind. He looked at the good fire in the grate as it flickered its frantic shadows over the daub green