rationalist
Original: rationalist on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman with a ponytail: Star Wars doesn't make any sense.
Panel 2:
Woman with a ponytail: Because of the magical space-wizards?
Person with dark curly hair (green sweater): No! The geopolitical theory!
Panel 3:
Person with dark curly hair: Under a rationalist framework of international relations, we can model pre-war and war as bargaining. War occurs when a bargain can't be struck due to incomplete information.
Panel 4:
Person with dark curly hair: Because war itself carries a cost, rationally if you have enough information to predict war's outcome, you should simply accept the final terms instead of paying the price of warfighting.
Person with dark curly hair (small caption): See Fearon 1995!
Panel 5:
Person with dark curly hair: But the empire and the rebellion both have CLAIRVOYANT POWERS! They should instantly assess the outcome based on Jedi-dreams and ancient prophecy, then skip the war part altogether.
Panel 6:
Person with dark curly hair: Game theory can accommodate magical space wizards just fine, but the idea that you would have secret access to the future and NOT use it to narrow the bargaining phase of war is INSANE.
Panel 7 (final wide panel, two figures standing atop a mountain, speech bubbles coming up from below):
Voice 1: What if the villains who dress in creepy robes and kill people with laser-swords are not acting based on 100% rationality?
Voice 2: Who would want to watch that?
Votey:
(I'm available to write the Star Wars TV show entirely about ongoing galactic senate negotiations)
Woman with a ponytail: Star Wars doesn't make any sense.
Panel 2:
Woman with a ponytail: Because of the magical space-wizards?
Person with dark curly hair (green sweater): No! The geopolitical theory!
Panel 3:
Person with dark curly hair: Under a rationalist framework of international relations, we can model pre-war and war as bargaining. War occurs when a bargain can't be struck due to incomplete information.
Panel 4:
Person with dark curly hair: Because war itself carries a cost, rationally if you have enough information to predict war's outcome, you should simply accept the final terms instead of paying the price of warfighting.
Person with dark curly hair (small caption): See Fearon 1995!
Panel 5:
Person with dark curly hair: But the empire and the rebellion both have CLAIRVOYANT POWERS! They should instantly assess the outcome based on Jedi-dreams and ancient prophecy, then skip the war part altogether.
Panel 6:
Person with dark curly hair: Game theory can accommodate magical space wizards just fine, but the idea that you would have secret access to the future and NOT use it to narrow the bargaining phase of war is INSANE.
Panel 7 (final wide panel, two figures standing atop a mountain, speech bubbles coming up from below):
Voice 1: What if the villains who dress in creepy robes and kill people with laser-swords are not acting based on 100% rationality?
Voice 2: Who would want to watch that?
Votey:
(I'm available to write the Star Wars TV show entirely about ongoing galactic senate negotiations)
Alt text
A six-panel comic plus a final wide panel. A woman with a ponytail says "Star Wars doesn't make any sense." A person with dark curly hair in a green sweater asks if it's because of the magical space-wizards; the woman says no, it's the geopolitical theory. The curly-haired person then launches into an enthusiastic lecture: under a rationalist framework of international relations, war is modeled as bargaining, and war only happens when a bargain can't be struck due to incomplete information (citing "See Fearon 1995!"). Since war carries a cost, anyone who can predict war's outcome should just accept the final terms instead of fighting. The punchline: the Empire and the Rebellion both have CLAIRVOYANT POWERS, so they should assess the outcome from Jedi-dreams and prophecy and skip the war entirely. Game theory can accommodate magic wizards fine, but having secret access to the future and not using it to shortcut war is INSANE. In the final wide black panel, two tiny figures stand atop a snowy mountain peak, with speech bubbles floating up from below: "What if the villains who dress in creepy robes and kill people with laser-swords are not acting based on 100% rationality?" and "Who would want to watch that?" The votey (a separate small panel) reads: "(I'm available to write the Star Wars TV show entirely about ongoing galactic senate negotiations)."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.