Castle Mottos

This is a picture from the castle that overlooks Edinburgh. Over the front gates is a saying in Latin that says something like, No disrespect will go unanswered. The tour guide explained that it was the Scottish motto. While this might be the Scottish motto, it was very similar to the sentiments found on castles in Ireland, England, and Spain. I found this interesting because it reminded me of the computer strategy tit-for-tat. There was a famous programming competition where programs would square off against each other. In a given round a program could decide to cooperate or fight. If you fought and the other program cooperated, you got 4 points and he got none. If you both cooperated, you each got 2 points. If you both fought, you each got 1 point. After 100 rounds, the programs would rotate to face another program. At the end, the program with the most points won. People wrote very elaborate programs, but what won the competition was tit-for-tat. This is where you start off cooperating, and then always do what the other program did in the previous round. What strikes me about these castles mottos, is how they seem to represent the idea of tit-for-tat in the real world. It seems that being either too aggressive or too forgiving keeps you from staying in power long enough to build a castle.