Humans who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago often get a bad rap.
That's because they lived long before many of the great technological advances that define our world today. How could these people, who lacked the power of modern technologies like computers, or even paper, have any chance to solve difficult problems requiring lots of calculations?
Then, as now, those problems include how to settle the estates of the deceased. Dividing up an estate fairly among surviving heirs can be a tricky thing on its own, but is something that becomes much more challenging if the recently departed died while in debt to others. How did people settle estates between creditors and heirs in this situation? And how did they do it fairly if the amount of debt was larger than the value of the deceased's wealth, belongings, and property? How can such an estate be settled fairly when the deceased was bankrupt?
The answer of how at least one culture resolved this difficult task without modern technologies some 1,800 years ago is remarkable because their approach proved to be the optimal solution according to game theory, which as a field, didn't come into its own until the twentieth century. Mathologer's Burkhard Polster explains how they reached that outcome in the following 40-minute video.
Admittedly, discussions of the content of the Babylonian Talmud and concepts like hydraulic rationing can be pretty dry, but also surprisingly fascinating in how they can lead to an optimal game-theoretic solution.
Labels: ideas, math, personal finance
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