@jamahl peavey, I would glad to answer your question.

I'll do it in the afternoon, as for the moment I'm a bit busy.

Personally, I think there are two counter arguments that can be presented based on your question. Firstly, the theories that do not have any real world practical use now may become very useful in the future. For example, when Einstein published his relativity paper, there wasn't much use of it then. But now, every satellite communication system uses the theories.

Secondly, from a game theoretic perspective, these cooperative games are turned into non-cooperative ones by adding incentives. In the presence of incentives, be it monetary or fame, each player tries to maximize his or her payoff.

P.S - Most great discoveries are fueled by curiosity and by human's nature to find the unknown.

In the first case, I assume you are referring to General Relativity which extended the Special Relativity which was already known to be true. These theories which might be said to have questionable application in the future have not even been proven to be correct. Even in the realm of curiosity there are expectations when money is involved.

Einstein's 1905 papers were possible because he was making a living from the Swiss State. There are not expectations in theoretical physics so it is a game centered around protecting a funding source which has no attached expectations. (i.e Public Funds). When was the last time the public demanded a solution to these outstanding problems. Not an application. But, "Hey when are you genius guys going to solve this problem we are paying for".

Fermat's last theorem level of difficult is very high and it was solved. They are constantly making progress with Riemann Hypothesis which has great application if solved. Cooperative Game theory is not about the competition which drives innovation. It is the reverse. A group of individuals with the ability to access funding sources reach an agreement centered around protecting that source and freezing out any competition which might threaten that source so a scientific elite can make a living outside real progress. It actually hurts theoretical physics next generation of practitioners. The handy man who is paid by the hour thinka he is being slick by milking the clock until his employer sees he sleeping on the job. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can fool all the people all the time.

Jamahl Peavey I don't think it is always correct to ask for practical applications to research (personal opinion). Like, would you say that the research going on around Black holes is useless as there are no applications for it and in our current capacity we can't test the theories ? Or perhaps heavily mathematical based theories such as string theory, where few think that its a dead end while others are quite hopeful for it.

"Cooperative Game theory is not about the competition which drives innovation. It is the reverse." Yes, agreed. But through incentivizing one can create a level of competition and hope that it will lead to breakthroughs.

This is a non cooperative game. Pursuing individual self interest might put the collective interest in jeopardy. But I feel market share can be gained if cooperative game can be played by all players. What's the strategy? And can the players solve prisoner dilllema game is critical in this respect.