The Evolution of Trust unblocked: play The Evolution of Trust online free right here in your browser — no download, no sign-up, works on a school Chromebook.
The Evolution of Trust is an interactive explainer by Nicky Case that teaches game theory by making you play it. It starts with a single coin machine: put in a coin and the other player receives three; keep your coin and you get nothing from the machine. Each round you and your opponent secretly choose to cooperate or cheat, and the scores show why trusting strangers is both profitable and risky.
It is less a game to win than an idea to poke at. Sessions run around fifteen to thirty minutes and move in short chapters, so it suits a slow browse rather than a quick reflex break. If you came to We Become What We Behold for a small, thoughtful piece that says something about how people behave, this belongs next to it.
The core is the repeated prisoner's dilemma. If you both cooperate, each of you comes out ahead. If one cheats while the other cooperates, the cheater gains and the cooperator loses. If you both cheat, nobody gains. One round rewards cheating, but a long series of rounds is a different problem.
Click "let's play a game" to begin. For each round, press COOPERATE or CHEAT, and the machine shows what your opponent chose and how the coins moved. The dots along the bottom of the screen let you jump between chapters, and the sandbox at the end lets you change every rule yourself.
After the first exercise you meet a cast of characters, each with a fixed strategy: one always cooperates, one always cheats, one copies whatever you did last, and one is friendly until you cheat it once and then never forgives. Later chapters simulate whole populations of them, so you can see which strategies spread and which die out. You mostly watch and adjust settings, then move on when you are ready.
The site's namesake, We Become What We Behold, is also by Nicky Case and is a short, dark toy about media and feedback loops. The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds continues in the same vein with an interactive look at how groups form opinions. If you would rather have story-driven choices, Life: The Game and Adventures With Anxiety are more personal, and Coming Out Simulator 2014 is a narrative game built around dialogue picks.
It runs in the browser with nothing to install, and works well on a laptop or a tablet, since clicking is all it needs.
The Evolution of Trust runs in an ordinary browser tab from wbwwb.com, with nothing to download or install, so it plays on most school Chromebooks and work computers. If a network filter blocks the site, only that network's administrator can change it.
Click "let's play a game", then choose COOPERATE or CHEAT each round. The dots at the bottom jump between chapters, and the sandbox at the end lets you change the rules.
It was made by Nicky Case, who also made We Become What We Behold.
Typically about fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on how long you spend in the sandbox.
No. Everything is done by clicking or tapping, so it works on a phone, tablet or laptop.
