2013-11-29

A four-panel comic. In the first three panels, two girls argue about rock-paper-scissors as if it were a serious game-theory problem. One says she thinks paper beats rock; the other counters that rock beats scissors which beats paper, so rock has an equal capacity to beat paper given enough time. The first replies with a dense academic question: if the determiner of victory is the order of play rather than the players, in what sense has the game reached a meaningful conclusion? In the final panel, a boy yells off-screen: "Mom! Susie's using political economy to get out of doing the dishes again!" and a girl shouts back, "Tell her it's not a real science!" Votey: a close-up of a grinning girl asking, "Anyone wanna play Condorcet's paradox?"