National Public Radio “Explaining Muppet Theory: Are You An Ernie Or A Bert?” I have to admit that I am an “order Muppet”, but I also believe that human societies function in part because of their heterogeneity: we need the optimal mix of different behavioral types in order to realize the full potential of our Read More
A Minor Post, Radio & Podcasts, Social DiversitySocial Bat “Why vampire bats are a good experimental model of cooperation: natural, cognitive, and controllable” I particularly like Gerry’s two-dimensional space representing different systems on the basis of their complexity and natural-ness!
A Minor Post, Cooperation, WebThe New York Times “Lessons from Ants to Grasp Humanity” Funny how the media likes to trot out Jerry Coyne whenever someone questions Darwinian orthodoxy. I cannot entirely blame Coyne for how he is quoted, but his quotes never seem to offer much a substantial critique. The bit on religion is interesting here: Wilson seems Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Books, Cooperation, Group Selection, SuperorganismsThe “Early Edition” of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America just posted online a paper entitled “Direct reciprocity in structured populations“. Authored by Matthijs van Veelen, Julián García, David G. Rand, and Martin A. Nowak, the paper combines two well-explored factors that influence how cooperation evolves: repeated Read More
Articles, Behavior, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Information Design, Reciprocity, Social NetworksProspect Magazine “The descent of Edward Wilson” First comment on this: what’s up with the ad hominem attacks on Wilson implying (not-so-subtly) that he is somehow slipping (look here for another example) in his old age? Given the massive departure that Dawkins has made from science in his writings on religion, he is the last one Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Books, Cooperation, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, SuperorganismsThe Huffington Post David Sloan Wilson blog “Richard Dawkins, Edward O. Wilson, and the Consensus of the Many” This is a very clear articulation of the history of multilevel selection. If only all biologists (in particular those who do not work in areas investigating altruistic behavior) could be compelled to read this; a lot of Read More
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Superorganisms, WebEcology Letters “Experimental climate change weakens the insurance effect of biodiversity“
A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Community EcologyOn the Media “How British science journalists are secretly undermining the American media” On the Media “Scientific retractions on the rise” On the Media “Retraction watch“
A Minor Post, Publication, Radio & Podcasts, Scientific FraudThe Takeaway “New Developments in DNA Sequencing” The problem with this kind of story is that it confuses listeners. While it may be a technological advance to be able to perform complete genetic sequencing of a fetus without risky invasive procedures, this new ability does not necessarily lead to the kind of “baby selection” that Read More
A Minor Post, Genetic Engineering, Genetics, Radio & PodcastsWNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Joseph Stiglitz Explains the Price of Inequality” As I have suggested before [1, 2], in order to stabilize our economy, we have to incentivize the generation of income from actual labor — not simply owning resources.
A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts