Content warning: math and philosophy. 

There is a branch of math based on determining the most optimal move or decision in any particular situation. It is called “game theory” because it is most often used in “games”, situations with well defined rules. The way it works is by assigning values to options, then analyzing the likelihood of each situation happening and the long term outcomes associated with each choice. 

In the short term, most games are easy to figure out. In the long term, the math gets complicated quickly as an optimal strategy is developed. The term for this is called the Nash Equilibrium, but that’s not important. 

What is important is how this interacts with the real world. There is a famous thought experiment in philosophy called the Trolley Problem. It is often mocked because it is one of those incredibly unlikely situations that only comes up in thought experiments, like a spherical cow. In the trolley problem, there is a trolley with no breaks barrelling down the tracks. The only choice that you can make is to pull a switch to determine which track it goes down. On one track, 1 person will be killed. On the other track, 5 people will be killed.

Of course this experiment is unrealistic. Of course no one is ever going to be in this exact situation. But the point of the experiment remains. At some point, everyone will face a choice between two evils. The only difference will be the size of the evils. 

For the game theorist, this choice is easy. Look at the relative values and do the math. The traditional Trolley problem is no problem at all. When faced with 1 life vs 5, if all other factors are equal, the game theorist will choose to save the 5 every time. Now there are ways to weight the problem that could change that choice. A young, pregnant mother vs 5 terminally ill senior citizens for example, or the President vs 5 condemned criminals, but the point remains. For the game theorist, it is all about the math. The cold calculus that reduces human lives to a value to be calculated. 

This may seem inhumane, but this is how the world works at the sharp end, when there are very few choices. In the end, when push comes to shove and we are reduced to making the really hard choices, we all do this math. Those of us with privilege don’t have to do this math very often, but those people on the street, they have to do this math all the time. Do I eat today, or save to get out of the freezing weather? Do I mug someone for money, or do I stand on my conscience and go hungry? 

When it is eat or be eaten, metaphorically speaking, people are forced to make choices that they never would never consider under other circumstances. That’s the cold calculus of game theory. And at $O$, we hear about these choices every day. Our first success story, Beren, was facing a choice between food and crime when he reached out to us and we bought him a taco, we gave him a third option. That is what we do. We give people a way out from the hard choices. 

That’s what you can do too. You can donate to us, or you can work at a soup kitchen. Buy someone on the street some food. Be kind. Give people who don’t have them more choices. If you have choices, share them with others. Choice is a privilege. Share it.