Why Evolution is True “E. O. Wilson mistakenly touts group selection (again) as a key factor in human evolution“
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Evolution, Group Selection, Kin Selection, ReciprocityThe Cornell Daily Sun “Darwin Days Lecture: “Can Cooperation Evolve by Natural Selection?”“
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Group Selection, Kin SelectionarXiv “Self-Organization Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation with Cultural Propagation“
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Kin Selection, ReciprocityThe Chronicle of Higher Education “The Evolutionary Mystery of Homosexuality” It is interesting that Barash focuses so heavily in this article on traditional population genetic explanations for the “paradox” of homosexuality, especially when it is becoming so clear that single-gene approaches to human evolution make very little sense. Barash also makes a really weak argument Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Natural Selection, Population Genetics, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and ReproductionFrequently I feel like I am listening to an early 2000’s George W. Bush speech when the ‘opponents of group selection’ step up to the podium. Seemingly, you are either “with us or against us” when it comes to considering selection acting at a level above the individual. As someone who is open to thinking Read More
A Major Post, Adaptation, Coevolution, Cultural Evolution, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Memetic Fitness, Multilevel Selection, Natural Selection, Punishment, WebWhy Evolution is True “David Sloan Wilson loses it again” This is the guy who is the Past President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, and he just cannot seem to keep his comments focused on science. There are some really great ideas discussed here, particularly about the nature of selfish genes and the Read More
A Minor Post, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Natural Selection, WebThe July issue of Scientific American features a cover story written by Martin A. Nowak called “Why We Help“. This very short article contains a brief review of Nowak’s “five rules” for cooperation, a little bit of connection to experimental work in real organisms, and some hazy conjecture concerning what makes humans cooperate. It seems as Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Behavior, Climate Change, Cooperation, Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Kin Selection, Punishment, Reciprocity, Social NetworksI am proud to announce the recent publication of a new paper in the Chinese Science Bulletin with collaborators from Yunnan University and the Kunming Institute of Zoology in Kunming, China. Our paper, entitled “Cooperation in an asymmetric volunteer’s dilemma game with relatedness“, uses a game-theoretic analysis of a new variant to the volunteer’s dilemma to Read More
Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Kin Selection, Modeling (General), Mutualism, My publicationsMartin Nowak has accomplished a lot for a mid-career scientist. His theoretical work exploring how cooperation evolves has illuminated the importance of a great number of evolutionary mechanisms. He has also been unafraid to tackle real-life problems of cooperation, including questions like “why do we get cancer?” and “how did language evolve?”. Nowak likes to Read More
Altruism, Books, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Ethics, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, History, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Kin Selection, Language Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Mutualism, Punishment, Reciprocity, Religion, Superorganisms, SustainabilityI just checked out a lecture given by Martin Nowak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was recently posted on the MIT videos site. The video was recently posted on the MIT site, but it is not entirely clear when it actually happened. I suspect it is the same lecture listed here. Nowak recently Read More
Altruism, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Kin Selection, Mathematics, Multilevel Selection, Psychological Adaptation, Radio & Podcasts, Reciprocity, Talks & Seminars, Web