R. D. Laing

It examines the rise of game theory during the Cold War and the way in which its mathematical models of human behaviour filtered into economic thought. The programme traces the development of game theory with particular reference to the work of John Nash, who believed that all humans were inherently suspicious and selfish creatures that strategised constantly. Using this as his first premise, Nash constructed logically consistent and mathematically verifiable models. He invented system games reflecting his beliefs about human behaviour, including one he called "Fuck You Buddy" in which the only way to win was to betray your playing partner. These games were internally coherent and worked correctly as long as the players obeyed the ground rules that they should behave selfishly and try to outwit their opponents, but when RAND's analysts tried the games on their own secretaries, they instead chose not to betray each other, but to cooperate every time. This did not, in the eyes of the analysts, discredit the models, but instead proved that the secretaries were unfit subjects.

The Winchester Club's decade-plus career has been gathering exponential steam of late. After wasting several years in near inactivity and repeatedly botched, even misplaced, recordings, the London-based shoegazers finally completed their independently released debut album, Brittania Triumphant, in 2007, then saw it reissued to great acclaim by the Exile on Mainstream label amidst tours in support of A Whisper in the Noise and Neurosis, plus a Roadburn festival appearance: not too shabby. Now the group simply have to prove that this sudden buzz was no fluke, beginning with their sophomore effort, Negative Liberty, which emerged in summer 2011 and reportedly drew inspiration from the cult BB2 documentary series The Trap, which, needless to say, may exclude listeners who have yet to watch the show from some of the conversation…