Antibiotic overuse: a porcine tragedy of the commons
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Nature Editorial “Pig out“
A Minor Post, CooperationPerhaps nestedness is just an artifact of ecological opportunity (and not stability)
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0One of my chief interests is stability: I am curious about what allows for the persistence of genes, individuals, groups, species, and communities. This is a broad question and it may not have single, simple answer, but it is exciting to think that there may be ‘rules of stability’ in nature that might help us Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Coevolution, Ecological Modeling, Interactions, Mutualism, Mutualistic Networks, Pollination, System StabilityJerry Coyne refutes the E.O. Wilson NYT piece
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Why Evolution is True “Did human social behavior evolve via group selection? E. O. Wilson defends that view in the NYT” Anyone who reads my posts here has learned that I find Jerry Coyne’s general tone to be really annoying and that I am predisposed to entertain group selective explanations of human behavior. But with Read More
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Multilevel SelectionA 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, PunishmentCall 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 TheoryWasps can recognize each other, by face
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0Science “Specialized Face Learning Is Associated with Individual Recognition in Paper Wasps“
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Social NetworksPeter Turchin on Steven Pinker’s “Grand Deception” hypotheses
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0Social Evolution Forum “The ‘Big Mistake’ and ‘Grand Deception’ Hypotheses: Alternatives to CMLS?” These are flaws in Pinker’s arguments that I failed to identify in my own critique, and Turchin prevents some valuable insights. This idea that the human mind can be so easily parasitized or ‘cuckolded’ by ideas is strange, casting ideas and culture as Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Belief, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Group Selection, Memetic Fitness, Phenotypic Plasticity, Psychological Adaptation, WebSteven Pinker makes it clear that he is not a “group selectionist”
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 5Frequently 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, Web