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In game theory, the prisoner's dilemma PD is a type of non-zero-sum game in which two players can "cooperate" with or "defect" (i.e. betray) the other player. In the classic form of this game, cooperating is strictly dominated by defecting, so that the only possible equilibrium for the game is for all players to defect. In simpler terms, no matter what the other player does, one player will always gain a greater payoff by playing defect. Since in any situation playing defect is more beneficial than cooperating, all rational players will play defect.

Democritus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He was born at Abdera in Thrace and lived from around 460 B.C.E. to 370 B.C.E. Democritus developed atomism which originated with Leucippus. Democritus identified the real existence of the cosmos with infinite numbers of permanent, imperishable, immutable, and indivisible elements called ā€œatomonā€ (atoms; means ā€œindivisibleā€), conceived the world as the composite of these material elements, and developed purely mechanical materialism, devoid of any trace of the mythical, which is rare in Greek philosophy.