Special Applications
As many of us know, Prof. McPhail drinks an exorbitant amount of coffee. Our informed estimate is that Prof. McPhail consumes an average of 10 to 12 cups of coffee per day. This type of behavior is dangerous for a variety of reasons. The risks of moderate coffee consumption (Prof. McPhail's consumption would not fall in this category) include:
• Increases in blood pressure among people with high blood pressure.
• Causes insomnia, anxiety, and irritability.
• May worsen symptoms of PMS in some women.
• Can reduce fertility in women trying to conceive.
• Can cause heartburn and indigestion.
• May increase the risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
• May increase blood levels of homocysteine and the associated risk of cardiovascular disease.
We should also note that some health authorities remain concerned about the potential effects of coffee drinking on heart disease, fibrocystic breast disease, stomach ulcers, and pancreatic and colorectal cancer, although for the most part recent studies seem to be exonerating coffee on these issues. Needless to say, excessive coffee consumption can be dangerous.
So how does one find themself in a position of consuming enough caffeine in one day to kill an 18 pound rat?1 We argue that this situation can be modeled as an Arms Race for a few different reasons. To begin with, coffee consumption, like the attainment of nuclear weapons, or the purchase of luxury items is something that will start a vicious cycle. If one country begins to build up armaments, another country will need to build up armaments just as if Prof. McPhail drinks 10 cups of coffee today, Prof. McPhail will need to drink ten cups of coffee tomorrow. In addition, the two models will have similar results. Unless there is interference people will continue to conspicuously consume until they cannot spend any more. In this model, Prof. McPhail will continue to drink more coffee until he cannot drink any more coffee. We believe that using the same techniques applied to Conspicuous Consumption and to Arms Races, we can accurately model Prof. McPhail's coffee consumption.
In this model it is Prof. McPhail who is playing against himself. Player 1 (row player) is Professor McPhail today, and Player 2 (column player) is Professor McPhail tomorrow.
| Even More Coffee | Coffee | No Coffee | |
| Even More Coffee | (4,2) | (4,0) | (4,-2) |
| Coffee | (1,3) | (1,1) | (1,-1) |
| No Coffee | (0,4) | (0,2) | (0,0) |
As you can see, regardless of what action Professor McPhail takes today,
1 This was deduced using incredible amounts of human brainpower and information gleaned from the website http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/caffeine/caffeine_dose.shtml
