Activities

Camp Activities

 * Token system
 * We give people a bunch of tokens at the start of camp and periodically throughout
 * At the end, tokens buy raffle tickets or something
 * People play games with tokens, bet with tokens, etc.
 * Running prediction markets
 * Put up predictions on sheets of paper, posted on random walls
 * People append their best estimate for the probability at the end of a list of predictions, get scored on contribution to accuracy (gain or lose tokens)
 * We want a database of questions in advance
 * Aumann game on trivia questions fits in the same framework (put up a trivia question, first person estimates, second person estimates, third person estimates, etc., all updating on previous estimates)
 * Wagering
 * Encourage bets with tokens
 * Take bets with students, make bets amongst instructors
 * Paranoid debating
 * During recreation time, get groups together for paranoid debating
 * Perhaps team vs. team
 * Applications
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Doing quick research projects, applying epistemic rationality or cost-benefit analysis or so on, might be quite valuable if relatively amusing
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rational debates
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t know exactly what the setting is, but the interaction in which A wants to make the best rational argument for X, B wants to make the best rational argument for Y, and C needs to decide, seems interesting
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E.g., Fermi estimation where debaters get more info, one argues for ‘up’ and one argues for ‘down.’
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Games
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Group games (a la USEMO)
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Predict properties of the set of predictions
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Submit strategy -> round robin games (colonel blotto, etc.)
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Statistics games
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“mathematician’s poker”: each player has a hidden value, people receive decreasingly noisy indicators and bet as in normal poker
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal poker
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Other games
 * <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Play chess, go,

<span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Paul’s Notes
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The biggest thing I want that is missing, is some activity which rewards thinking about what to do, cost-benefit analysis, and making tradeoffs. Ordinary games have this property to some extent, but they are often dominated by the effect of understanding, skill, etc. Maybe we can just use some games which no one knows, or artificial games which don’t have much too them other than resource allocation.

<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I don’t know how much time there will be for these sorts of things. It may be they don’t really matter for the experience, because there won’t be that much relaxing time and people will want to spend it relaxing. Ideally I would like things to be optional, but to take the place of e.g. playing cards. So introducing stuff early.