or two accused crooks, and they're in separate cells

他们都被指控了被分别关进了牢房
and they're being interviewed separately--kept apart--and

他们俩被单独提审
they're both told that if neither of them rats the other guy out,

两人都知道如果他们不坦白
they'll go to jail for say a year.

他们都要只需要坐一年牢
If they both rat each other out, they'll end up in jail for two years,

要是都坦白了两人都要坐两年牢
But if you rat the other guy out and he doesn't rat you out,

要是你坦白而他不坦白
then you will go home free and he'll go to jail for five years.

你无罪释放而他坐五年牢
Put that all down and you pretty quickly see that,

先放下手里的事快速思考一下
regardless whether the other guy rats you or not,

不管那个家伙是不是坦白了
you're better off ratting him out.

你最好要坦白
Now, if you have never seen that Prisoner's Dilemma,

如果你之前没听说过囚徒困境
you can see it pretty much every night on a show called Law & Order.

回去看看每天晚上演的"法制"