“Cooperate on move one; thereafter, do whatever the other player did the previous move.” Quote by Anatol Rapoport
“The first attempts to consider the behavior of so-called "random neural nets" in a systematic way have led to a series of problems concerned with relations between the "structure" and the "function" of such nets. The "structure" of a random net is not a clearly defined topological manifold such as could be used to describe a circuit with explicitly given connections. In a random neural net, one does not speak of "this" neuron synapsing on "that" one, but rather in terms of tendencies and probabilities associated with points or regions in the net.” WayFirstsDoeProblemUsedSpeakGivenTermBehaviorConcernedConnectionsFunctionRelationStructureSeriesTendenciesDefinedRegionsProbabilitySystematicCircuitsNeuronsManifold Author:Anatol Rapoport
“Whether sociology can ever become a full-fledged "science" (a description of a class of events predictable on the basis of deductions from a constant rationale) depends on whether the terms which sociologists employ to describe events can be analyzed into quantifiable observables.” TermClassEventsDependsBasesConstantDescriptionSociologyPredictableDeductionsSociologists Author:Anatol Rapoport
“[It is a] well-known fact that the likely contacts of two individuals who are closely acquainted tend to be more overlapping than those of two arbitrarily selected individuals.” WellsTwoFactsIndividualKnownContactWell KnownSelectedOverlapping Author:Anatol Rapoport
“It is misleading in a crucial way to view information as something that can be poured into an empty vessel, like a fluid or even energy.” WayEnergyViewsInformationEmptyCrucialVesselFluidMisleadEmpty Vessels Author:Anatol Rapoport
“The transition from the concept of information in the technical (communication engineering) sense to the semantic (theory of meaning) sense was indeed difficult, if not impossible.” IfsDifficultImpossibleInformationTheoryCommunicationConceptsTransitionEngineering Author:Anatol Rapoport
“A theorem is a proposition which is a strict logical consequence of certain definitions and other propositions.” CertainConsequenceDefinitionsLogicalStrictPropositionsTheorems Author:Anatol Rapoport
“The outstanding feature of behavior is that it is often quite easy to recognize but extremely difficult or impossible to describe with precision.” EasyDifficultImpossibleBehaviorFeaturesOutstandingPrecision Author:Anatol Rapoport
“The military forces of the revolutionary adversary are diffuse. One is never sure whether one has destroyed them unless one is ready to destroy a large portion of the population, and this usually conflicts with the political aim of the war and hence also violates a fundamental Clausewitzian principle.” WarPoliticalForcePrinciplesMilitaryReadyConflictAimFundamentalsPopulationDestroyedRevolutionaryPortionsAdversariesMilitary Force Author:Anatol Rapoport
“It is one thing to say that the dwelling has symbolic and cosmological aspects... and another to say that it has been erected for ritual purposes and is neither shelter nor dwelling but a temple.” Has BeensPurposeOne ThingAspectTemplesRitualShelterSymbolicDwelling Author:Anatol Rapoport
“The "flow of information" through human communication channels is enormous. So far no theory exists, to our knowledge, which attributes any sort of unambiguous measure to this "flow".” HumansInformationTheoryCommunicationFlowEnormousAttributes Author:Anatol Rapoport