Does Capitalism Need a Government to Be Nice: Robert Axelrod and His Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Computer Tournament

In the past few decades, the progressive political ideal of strong central governments or collective morality being necessary to enforce cooperative behavior has become widely-accepted. However, many philosophers throughout history, especially that from the classical liberalism tradition, have espoused free market, open society ideals arguing not only that governments are the source of much of the immorality and conflict many are afraid of, but also that man left in a free environment can and will cooperate and develop naturally moral systems that allow for economic and societal development. Robert Axelrod, more recently, studied this debate using the famous Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game from traditional game theory and applied computer science to find that, indeed, cooperation can arise naturally even between selfish prisoners. This paper develops the study further by examining more realistic situations of PD games involving multiple players, using computer simulations, i.e. agent-based modeling, and finds that Axelrod’s original conclusions hold true.

Automation of Recording Current Academic Performance of Students

The subsystem of recording current academic performance, which allows to quickly obtain detailed information about the current academic performance of students and make management decisions on adjusting the educational process in terms of Baikal State University. It describes in detail the requirements for functionality and quality, the choice of means of implementing the subsystem, presents an algorithm for calculating students' current academic performance indicators, substantiates the choice of a two-level architecture (client-server). A database has been developed that has a connection with other subsystems of the universitys information system. The user interface is implemented considering academic performance requirements. The subsystem is tested on the data received from lecturers teachers who read disciplines in the field of study «Applied Computer Science» (educational program specialization «Information systems and technologies in management»). The subsystem can be adapted for recording current academic performance in any educational institutions.