This Monday 3rd (November) at 15:30 we will have another Dynamic Logic Working Session. This time, Nina will talk about “The New Eleusis” (abstract follows). The meeting will take place in room 1.14 of the P building (Euclides).
Abstract
“[Eleusis game] should be of special interest to mathematicians and other scientists because of its striking analogy with scientific method and its exercise of precisely those psychological abilities in concept formation that seem to underlie the ‘hunches’ of creative thinkers.”
Martin Gardner, Scientific American, 1959.
Eleusis is a card game invented in 1956 by Robert Abott. In the original version the dealer devised a secret rule, and the players aim was to get rid of their cards by adding them to a line of correct cards. Figuring out the secret rule would help a player get rid of cards. In 1973 the author started to improve Eleusis. The role of Prophet was added. If a player thinks he knows the rule, he can declare himself Prophet and make the calls for the dealer. This version was described in Martin Gardner’s column in Scientific American in October 1977. To get familiar with the rules of the game, see: http://matuszek.org/eleusis1.html
First, I will briefly introduce the rules of The New Eleusis. Then we will discuss two levels of the game complexity. One challenge is to guess the rule, second – to win the game. Since those two are not equivalent, the analysis of the game requires a mixture of inductive inference methods (function learning) and classical game-theoretic tools. I hope for some computational complexity and game theory feedback.
Hopefully, we will manage to play one round of Eleusis.