> The Joker scares the city onto its two ferries. Once the ferries are in the middle of the water, he cuts their power and gives them both a button to blow up the other ferry, thereby constructing a prisoner’s dilemma (one boat is filled with real prisoners). The passengers discuss and vote. One of the prisoners makes a Ulysses pact and credibly commits by tossing the detonator overboard.<p>This isn't actually a prisoner's dilemma. In a PD, both players decide simultaneously, and your payoff depends on both choices. In this, your payoff simply depends on who defects first, with the caveat (which turns out to be false) that if nobody defects you both die.<p>(If you assume both boats decide simultaneously whether to defect or not, it still isn't a PD. The payoff matrix looks like 1,1 / 1,0 / 0,1 / 0,0 if nobody dies when they both cooperate: it's not a PD because defecting doesn't increase your score. If everyone dies when you both cooperate, the payoff matrix is 0,0 / 1,0 / 0,1 / 0,0: utility is not maximised by both players cooperating.)<p>Nor is tossing the detonator a credible commitment, in game theory terms, unless the other boat sees it.
>it never stops to notice that the Joker is actually the hero. [...] his various games only have one innocent casualty<p>Blowing up a major hospital (even an evacuated one - at very short notice I might add) or having firefights in the streets does cause casualties, even if none are shown on-screen.<p>For that matter, the joker WANTED more casualties, as outright stated in the ferries incident. A failed mass murderer is not a better role model than a successful one.
"Thus Master Wayne is left without solutions. Out of options, it’s no wonder the series ends with his staged suicide." :`(<p>[Edit to note that this is his final blog post, per <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047440" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047440</a> .]
"I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. I thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday morning, I was asked to resign."<p>From <a href="https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget" rel="nofollow">https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget</a>