A
no-win situation, also called a "
lose-lose" situation, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of dying by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, since all choices lead to death, the condemned is in a no-win situation. This bleak situation gives the chooser little room: whatever choice is made, the person making it will lose his life.
Less drastic situations might also be considered no-win situations: if one has a choice for lunch between a ham sandwich and a roast beef sandwich, but is a vegetarian or has a wheat allergy, that might be considered a no-win situation.
In
game theoryGame theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences, most notably in economics, as well as in biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, and philosophy...
, a "no-win" situation is one in which no player benefits from any outcome (Adversely, a situation in which the involved person can win either way is called a securvian fortune).
Discussion
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A
no-win situation, also called a "
lose-lose" situation, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of dying by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, since all choices lead to death, the condemned is in a no-win situation. This bleak situation gives the chooser little room: whatever choice is made, the person making it will lose his life.
Less drastic situations might also be considered no-win situations: if one has a choice for lunch between a ham sandwich and a roast beef sandwich, but is a vegetarian or has a wheat allergy, that might be considered a no-win situation.
In game theory
In
game theoryGame theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences, most notably in economics, as well as in biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, and philosophy...
, a "no-win" situation is one in which no player benefits from any outcome (Adversely, a situation in which the involved person can win either way is called a securvian fortune). This may be because of:
- Unavoidable or unforeseeable circumstances causing the situation to change after decisions have been made
- Zugzwang
Zugzwang is a term originally used in chess which also applies to various other games. The concept finds its formal definition in combinatorial game theory. It describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move – the player would prefer to pass and make...
, as in chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
, when any move a player chooses makes him worse off than before
- A situation in which the player has to accomplish two mutually dependent tasks each of which must be completed before the other, or that are mutually exclusive (a Catch-22
Catch-22 is a term coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, describing a paradox in rules, regulations, procedures, or situations in which one has knowledge of being or becoming a victim but has no control over it occuring.-Logic:...
)
- Ignorance of other players' actions, meaning the best decision for all differs from that for any one player (as in the Prisoner's Dilemma
The prisoner's dilemma constitutes a problem in game theory. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. Albert W...
).
In history
Carl von ClausewitzCarl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz was a Prussian soldier, military historian and military theorist. He is most famous for his military treatise Vom Kriege, translated into English as On War.-Life and times:...
's advice never to launch a war that one has not already won characterizes war as a no-win situation. A similar example is the
Pyrrhic victoryA Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor.-Origin:The phrase is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War...
, in which a military victory is so costly that the winning side actually ends up worse off than before it started. Looking at the victory as a part of a larger situation, the situation could either be no-win or a win for the other side than the one that won the "victory". For example, the "victorious" side may have accomplished their objective, but the objective may have been worthless, or they may lose a strategic advantage in manpower or positioning.
In Europe before the
ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
those accused of being witches were sometimes bound and then thrown or dunked in water to test their innocence. A witch would float (by calling upon the Devil to save her from drowning), and then be executed; but a woman not a witch would drown (proving her innocence but causing her death).
In fiction
- A no-win situation has become part of the Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series.The original Star Trek was an American television series, created by Gene Roddenberry, which debuted in 1966 and ran for three seasons, following the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Federation...
mythosMythos is a Greek word meaning "story, legend, plot" and may refer to:* Myth or Mythology** The shared elements, characters, settings and themes in a set of works, e.g...
in the Kobayashi MaruThe Kobayashi Maru is a test in the fictional Star Trek universe. It is a Starfleet training exercise designed to test the character of cadets in the command track at Starfleet Academy. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the opening scene of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and...
scenario. In this test, cadets assume the position of commanders on a starship that intercepts an SOSSOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
from an allied ship in enemy territory. If they ignore the SOS the ship is eventually attacked and destroyed, with no survivors. But if they decide to enter enemy territory to rescue the other ship they are led in to a trap, and are overwhelmed and destroyed by enemy ships. Cadets are not told until after the test that the simulation is impossible to win; it is meant as a test of character.
- In the film WarGames
WarGames is a 1983 drama-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film starred Matthew Broderick in his second major film role, and featured Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Barry Corbin....
, the expression "no-win situation" was interpreted to mean a global nuclear warNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weapons are used. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare is vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
. An artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"...
program named "Joshua", assumes control of the US nuclear arsenal from the WOPRWOPR is a fictional military computer featured in the movie WarGames. It is an acronym for War Operation Plan Response. Director John Badham invented the name "WOPR" when he thought the NORAD SIOP was "boring, and told you nothing"...
supercomputer that operates it, and attemptes to start a nuclear war against the USSR, believing the scenario to be a game. The protagonist gets Joshua to play itself at tic-tac-toeTic-tac-toe, also spelled tick tack toe, and alternatively called noughts and crosses, X's and O's, and many other names, is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, O and X, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid, usually X going first...
, and after hundreds of instantaneous stalemateStalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
s, it starts to simulate all the strategies it developed for nuclear war. Discovering that every single strategy leads to the end of planet Earth, it determines that "the only winning move is not to play", and stands down aborting its attempt to use the arsenal which it was on the brink of success of doing.
See also
- Cornelian dilemma
A Cornelian dilemma is a dilemma in which someone is obliged to choose between two courses of action either of which will have a detrimental effect on themselves or on someone near to them...
- Winner's curse
The winner's curse is a phenomenon akin to a Pyrrhic victory that occurs in common value auctions with incomplete information. In short, the winner's curse says that in such an auction, the winner will tend to overpay...
- Catch-22 (logic)
Catch-22 is a term coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, describing a paradox in rules, regulations, procedures, or situations in which one has knowledge of being or becoming a victim but has no control over it occuring.-Logic:...
- Double bind
A double bind is a dilemma in communication in which an individual receives two or more conflicting messages, with one message negating the other. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message implicates a failed response to the other, so that the person will be...
- Win-win