Blindspot

A BLOG ABOUT LAW, POLITICS, AND CULTURE

Nov 25, 2017
6 min

Game Theory and the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars

We are rapidly approaching a world of self-driving cars. Experts contend that as compared with their human-driven counterparts, these computer-driven machines promise to save vast numbers of human lives. We also know that self-driving cars will inevitably get into accidents, sometimes with deadly consequences. As with human-drivers, self-driving operating systems will occasionally confront tragic choices, choices that ultimately rest on very human programmers. Analysts often

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Max Stearns

Oct 23, 2017
6 min

Emma Stone: Game Theorist

Emma Stone played brilliantly in a movie subtly depicting the nuances of what game theorists call a battle of the sexes. More recently, she played Billie Jean King, who famously defeated Bobbie Riggs in a 1973 match in the Houston Astrodome. Both movies have game theory implications. The titles keep us in suspense. La La Land: Everyone knows La La Land. If you don’t, or if you don’t think it’s flawless (check), you might just get arrested. See here. Aspiring singer and actor,

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Max Stearns

May 20, 2017
3 min

Putting some Coase in your airline coaster

Read here: https://evonomics.com/resolve-fights-reclining-airplane-seats-use-behavioral-economics/. The proposal, by Professor Christopher Buccafusco of Cardozo Law School and Professor Christopher Jon Sprigman of New York University Law School, to have people buy the right to recline on a flight is interesting. I have long legs, and I'm not sure how much I would pay to recline, but certainly I would pay something, especially on a long flight. My own framing of this issue is

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Maxwell Stearns

I have been teaching law for twenty-nine years, and I am the Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. My core areas of interest are Constitutional Law and Law & Economics, which I view as critically interwoven. My most recent book is titled Law and Economics: Private and Public (West Academic 2018, with Todd Zywicki and Tom Miceli). In this poster, recently created by the Maryland Carey Law Thurgood Marshall Law Library, I am pictured with several wonderful books that I've recommended to friends, family, and students.