Pie cutting algorithm

Tim May said:
<< ObCrypto Sidebar: The "fair" method for dividing a pie between two people
is well-known: "You cut, I choose." This *game theory* result is central to
many cryptographic protocols (though it may not always be apparent at
first). And the protocol can be extended to 3 parties, and proabably to N.
Research is ongoing on this, including Cypherpunk Robin Hanson's work at
Caltech. >>

I (RS) believe Claude Shannon proposed the following N-person pie-cutting algorithm more than 25 years ago:

Persons 1...N are seated around a circular table. A Thing To Be Shared (Call it a "pie") sits in front of P1 (Alice, if you prefer).

P1 cuts a slice (a portion satisfactory to her) out of the pie -- the "current slice" -- and offers the whole pie with the current slice to the person P2 (Barbara, if you like) to her left for her consideration. It is possible that P1 is so greedy that she makes the whole pie the current slice.

P2 does one of 2 things:
A. P2 cuts a smaller slice (a portion satisfactory to her, which becomes the new current slice) out of the old current slice and offers the whole pie with the new current slice to P3.
B. P2 passes (being unwilling to settle for a smaller slice of the pie than the current slice), offering the person P3 to her left the whole pie with the current slice for her consideration;

P3 does one of 2 things:
A. P3 cuts a smaller slice (a portion satisfactory to her, which becomes the new current slice) out of the old current slice and offers the whole pie with the new current slice to P4.
B. P3 passes (being unwilling to settle for a smaller slice of the pie than the current slice), offering the person P4 to her left the whole pie with the current slice for her consideration;

...

Eventually, someone (Pm, or Morticia) has cut a current slice, and everybody else has passed. At that point Pm gets the piece she cut, leaves the table with it, and (if N > 2) the game proceeds ab initio with N-1 people and the remaining pie. If N = 2 (two people were playing), there's now one person left (Winnie), and she gets the remaining pie.

The whole procedure terminates, with everyone satisified, after a finite number of steps.

Tim May: as a Licensed Ontologist, do you know who made the wiseassed (but deep) remark "Ontology recapitulates Philology"? or for that matter, "Oncology recapitulates Proctology".
Rollo Silver / Amygdala | e-mail: rollo@artvark.com
216M N. Pueblo Rd, #107 | Website: http://www.artvark.com/artvark/
Taos, NM 87571 USA      | Voice: 505-751-9601; FAX: 505-751-7507

Hello, I would rather I not be too blunt, but despite my generous interest in computer
 hacking cracking, and other such related topics, I have come to be confused by the
 mailer, can I ask any questions that I wish, or am I limited by some type of header
 subject?

> Hello, I would rather I not be too blunt, but despite my generous
interest in computer > hacking cracking, and other such related topics, I
have come to be confused by the > mailer, can I ask any questions that I
wish, or am I limited by some type of header > subject?



Shaun, let me explain. There's a committee of seven people. Me, Tim May,
David Sternlight, some assination-politics guy, some guy named Vultis or
somesuch, and so on. 

Only if we're in unanimous agreement on the outcome of an issue, may you 
start a thread on a new topic. which then continues till the first 
posting which calls someone a Nazi.

Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net> writes:

> > Hello, I would rather I not be too blunt, but despite my generous
> interest in computer > hacking cracking, and other such related topics, I
> have come to be confused by the > mailer, can I ask any questions that I
> wish, or am I limited by some type of header > subject?
>
>
>
> Shaun, let me explain. There's a committee of seven people. Me, Tim May,
> David Sternlight, some assination-politics guy, some guy named Vultis or
> somesuch, and so on.
>
> Only if we're in unanimous agreement on the outcome of an issue, may you
> start a thread on a new topic. which then continues till the first
> posting which calls someone a Nazi.

No, no, this is all wrong. There's a guy named Lance Deitweller and he has
fun posting as different people and posting under different names. Sometimes
Lance's different personalities (he calls them "tentacles") even argue with
one another!

These posters have been definitevely shown to be Lance's tentacles:
Alan Olsen (Lance posing as friend of vegetables)
"Dr." David Sternlight
Igor Chewed-Off
Jim Bell (talk.politics.assassination)
Black Unicorn
"Tim May" (Lance is pretending to be senile)
Vladimir Z. Nuri (Lance's parody of a Brighton Beach Sovok)

None of these people are real in any sense. It's just Lance playing games.

As for the creative misspellings of my family name, Igor Ch. used to have
a collection: Vulvis, Vilus, Vul(gar)is, what you get when you cross a
vulva and a penis, etc, etc. Igor will probably post whatever I missed.

ObGodwin: David C [no dot] Lawrence is a Nazi.

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

>>>>> In article <so4qRD1w165w@bwalk.dm.com>, dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM) writes:

    > Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net> writes:
    >> > Hello, I would rather I not be too blunt, but despite my generous
    >> interest in computer > hacking cracking, and other such related topics, I
    >> have come to be confused by the > mailer, can I ask any questions that I
    >> wish, or am I limited by some type of header > subject?
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> Shaun, let me explain. There's a committee of seven people. Me, Tim May,
    >> David Sternlight, some assination-politics guy, some guy named Vultis or
    >> somesuch, and so on.
    >> 
    >> Only if we're in unanimous agreement on the outcome of an issue, may you
    >> start a thread on a new topic. which then continues till the first
    >> posting which calls someone a Nazi.

    > No, no, this is all wrong. There's a guy named Lance Deitweller and he has
    > fun posting as different people and posting under different names. Sometimes
    > Lance's different personalities (he calls them "tentacles") even argue with
    > one another!

    > These posters have been definitevely shown to be Lance's tentacles:
    > Alan Olsen (Lance posing as friend of vegetables)
    > "Dr." David Sternlight
    > Igor Chewed-Off
    > Jim Bell (talk.politics.assassination)
    > Black Unicorn
    > "Tim May" (Lance is pretending to be senile)
    > Vladimir Z. Nuri (Lance's parody of a Brighton Beach Sovok)

You forgot:
	Dr. Dimitri Vulis (Rabid spewer of flames about someone/something
involving wheelchairs and vegetables, as though carrots, or any other
vegetable, use wheelchairs, but no-one really knows what this branch
of Lance is talking about, nor wants to.  This particular tentacle
somehow manages to make reference to its favorite imaginary topic in
every messaage it writes on any topic whatsoever.  Also, never mispell
its name.)


-Robin

PS: For the record, I find that Dimitri often has interesting things
to say.  I just wish he'd stop talking about wheelchairs and
vegetables.  Makes me get sad (I broke my back and almost ended up in
a wheelchair, but I'm much better now) and hungry (I'm a vegetarian)
at the same time.

Robin Powell <rpowell@algorithmics.com> writes:
> PS: For the record, I find that Dimitri often has interesting things
> to say.  I just wish he'd stop talking about wheelchairs and
> vegetables.  Makes me get sad (I broke my back and almost ended up in
> a wheelchair, but I'm much better now) and hungry (I'm a vegetarian)
> at the same time.

This reminds me of another mine-flame war I recently had on another forum
with a vegetarian who claimed that vegetarian airplane food is much worse
than airplane meat. He never tried the latter, so he just assumed it must be
better, and so poor vegetarians were being discriminated against. I found it
funny because so many people (including myself) ask for vegetarian food
when flying because their meat is usually even worse.

Likewise, Robin opens his (or her? this is a gender neutral name) big mouth
without knowing what the fuck s/he's talking about - and makes himself/
herself look like a complete idiot, comparable to "Dr." David Sternlight.

We have one demented cripple on this mailing list whose agenda is centered
around silencing everything he doesn't agree with. He keeps whining about
anonymous remailers which permit "homophobes" to get away with posting
their crimethoughts. He threatens to sue everyone who badmouths his meal
ticket - the wheelchair. Our taxes pay for his wheelchair, his Internet
access, his apartment, his welfare check... Disgraceful.

Unless you're a fascist, you shouldn't identify with this demented cripple.

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

At 8:40 PM -0700 7/26/96, Rollo Silver wrote:

>Tim May: as a Licensed Ontologist, do you know who made the wiseassed (but
>>deep) remark "Ontology recapitulates Philology"?

Was he being definite?

David