E.O. Wilson on the biological origins of sin and virtue
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0The New York Times Opinionator “Evolution and Our Inner Conflict“
A Minor Post, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Psychological AdaptationA new salvo in the punishment wars: if everyone can punish, defectors triumph
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0arXiv “Punishment can promote defection in group-structured populations” This paper points out a major problem with theoretical modeling, especially modeling that is simulation-based: tiny changes in assumptions matter. Testing just one set of assumptions takes a lot of effort, and so only through the work of multiple groups do the entire “state space” of possible Read More
A Minor Post, PunishmentAndrew Colman on “spontaneous similarity discrimination”
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0WAMC Academic Minute “Dr. Andrew Colman, University of Leicester — Natural Selection and Cooperation“
A Minor PostCall it “ethnocentrism” or the “green beard effect”, “tags” assist cooperation
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Theory, Evolution, and Games Group “Evolution of ethnocentrism in the Hammond and Axelrod model“
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Social Networks, WebSometimes our simulations have more to tell than we first see
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Theory, Evolution, and Games Group “Bifurcation of cooperation and inviscid ethnocentrism” One of the big dangers of simulation work is that it produces so much data, so it is natural to just code in some analysis algorithms that spit out digested data. But sometimes this analysis can hide interesting results!
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, WebA final solution to the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma?
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma contains strategies that dominate any evolutionary opponent” An interesting digestion of this paper: Rules of Reason “Tit-for-tat no more: new insights into the origin and evolution of cooperation“
A Minor Post, Articles, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Game TheoryRobert Krulwich on the value of telling stories about science
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0RadioLab “Tell Me a Story“
A Minor Post, Public Outreach, Radio & PodcastsOn Being features David Sloan Wilson
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0On Being “Evolving a City” Fascinating stuff here about the degree to which evolutionary science serves society. Wilson’s idea of “managing the evolutionary process” is valuable, and needs to be taken up more often.
A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Radio & PodcastsDaniel Dennett on Darwin and Turing’s “strange inversion of reasoning”
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0The Atlantic “‘A Perfect and Beautiful Machine’: What Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence” I like this idea of “competence without comprehension”. I think that this could apply to a lot of our cultural practices as well as to the brilliance of evolved biological adaptations. I also appreciate the use of the “sorta” Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Cognitive Ability, Evolution, Natural SelectionMacroevolutionary change: do successful lineages have “evolvability” or “survivability”?
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0PLoS One “Survivability Is More Fundamental Than Evolvability” I want to understand this paper better than I do, but there’s almost no burden of explanation taken on by these authors. I get their main point, but have no clue as to how their model allowed them to arrive at this point. I need to hone Read More
A Minor Post, Macroevolution