The Potluck Problem

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Potluck Problem, modeling how independent agents allocate resources without communication under economic assumptions, highlighting challenges in multi-agent systems.

Contribution

It presents the Potluck Problem as a new framework for studying resource allocation among autonomous agents without explicit communication.

Findings

Highlights difficulties in decentralized resource allocation

Provides a formal model for multi-agent economic interactions

Lays groundwork for future algorithms in autonomous systems

Abstract

This paper proposes the Potluck Problem as a model for the behavior of independent producers and consumers under standard economic assumptions, as a problem of resource allocation in a multi-agent system in which there is no explicit communication among the agents.