ABSTRACT
Imagine a boat with a number of passengers, each having a paddle, floating on a wild river through a rugged and foggy landscape with potential but unknown dangers. Passengers have only a limited perception of the landscape and use the paddle whenever the boat seems to move too fast towards a potential danger area. Some passengers may be too weak or lazy to take any action or they do not care about the dangers, while others try to get through the danger area as fast as possible to reach their destination. Some are cautiously trying to slow down the speed of the boat to keep it under control, and a fourth group wants to reach a safe harbor to make a plan or wait for better circumstances. As everyone acts alone, the result is an erratic movement of the boat which rapidly undergoes a series of disasters until the weaker passengers and eventually all passengers have lost their fight. Alternatively, the passengers could
begin negotiating a plan on how to move jointly through the danger area, based on systematic acquisition of information about the environment, and use their paddles in a coordinated manner, with more efforts applied by the stronger passengers.
