Speaker: 

Professor Roger B. Myerson, University of Chicago

Time: 20:00 to 21:00,  May 27, 2026

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Abstract

In the course of biological evolution, animals often compete fiercely for territories and food. Despite facing the same scarcity of resources, human society has gradually established a relatively stable civil order. This progress relies not merely on physical strength, but on unique human coordination mechanisms. If AI is reshaping how we disseminate information and make decisions today, then tens of thousands of years ago, language was the earliest super-algorithm that revolutionized human social interactions.

Conflicts seem inevitable when resources are scarce and all parties lay legitimate claims to them. Professor Roger B. Myerson will interpret the game theory model: Rival-Claimants Games.

In simple terms, the outcome of such game is not limited to a choice between fight or cooperate; rather, it may give rise to a variety of coordination rules, such as ‘first come, first served’, or ‘might makes right’, or ‘the one who contributes the most prevails’. In this context, the role of language and communication becomes particularly crucial.

The lecture will further explore the role of language in human evolution, demonstrating how language evolved from a mere tool of communication into a fundamental mechanism for resolving conflicts, fostering cooperation, and forming social order. Meanwhile, in today’s era of rapid artificial intelligence development, as intelligent systems increasingly participate in information processing and social collaboration, people are beginning to refocus their attention on deeper issues such as communication, rules and cooperation. This perspective endows new practical significance to the study of language and coordination mechanisms.

This lecture aims to guide students in understanding the function of language in social interactions from a game theory perspective, as well as the significance of coordination mechanisms in shaping human behaviors and social institutions. It will provide an analytical framework and a way of thinking for students interested in economics, cognitive science, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields to understand social coordination, linguistic evolution, and cooperative mechanisms.

Biography

Professor Roger B. Myerson is a distinguished economist and game theorist, and the laureate of the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He currently serves as the David L. Pearson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and once held the position of President of the Econometric Society. Myerson has a PhD from Harvard University and taught for 25 years at Northwestern University before coming to the University of Chicago in 2001, and has remained actively engaged at the forefront of international academic research.

Professor Myerson’s research covers game theory, mechanism design, political economy and information economics. He has put forward a number of fundamental theories in the areas of incomplete information games and incentive mechanism design, which have had a profound impact on auction design, market mechanisms and public policy formulation. The ‘Revelation Principle’ and his systematic analysis of incentive-compatible mechanisms have become cornerstones of modern economics. In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Leonid Hurwicz and Eric S. Maskin for his groundbreaking contributions to mechanism design theory.

Apart from theoretical research, he has long devoted himself to national governance research, applying game theory to political system design and institutional reform in developing countries. His academic work Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict enjoys high prestige worldwide.