It turns out that Rock-Paper-Scissors has strategy! A programming contest demonstrates that there are optimal, non-random strategies that involve anticipating your opponents (provided that they, too are engaged in optimal, non-random strategies that etc…)
Dan has written an incredibly strong Rock-Paper-Scissors program, which simply dominated every aspect of the competition. Of the 25 independent tournaments run for the Open Competition, Iocaine Powder won ALL of them. In the six sets of 25 tournaments conducted for the "Best of the Best" competition, Iocaine Powder finished first every time.
In many ways, Dan's program is a generation ahead of it's time. I believe it would have been a worthy winner of the second RoShamBo competition, after all the lessons had been learned and ideas shared from the first set of tournaments. By co-operating with his fellow alumni from Caltech, he greatly improved on a previous version of the program which was already strong enough to win the competition!
(via Upe's Planet)
