Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution, and Behaviour [Hardcover]

Karl Sigmund (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1993

Life is often a matter of gambles, pay-offs and trade-offs, just like a game. This book takes the reader on a tour through the games and computer simulations that are helping science to understand the ecology, evolution and behaviour of real life - from cat and mouse to cellular automata, from the battle of the sexes to artificial life, from poker to the prisoner's dilemma. It explains why scientific observations and insights can be structured as the rules of a survival game, and what happens when they are assembled on a computer or in the mind and allowed to run. The book looks at genetics, population ecology, evolution and animal behaviour. Looks at genetics, population ecology, evolution and animal behaviour.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 26, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198546653
• ISBN-13: 978-0198546658
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,712,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine and funny introduction, December 17, 2002

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour (Penguin science) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm sorry to see that this book is out of print at the time of this writing. I hope it gets republished.

For one thing, it's funny. Karl Sigmund is a mathematician, and he has a mathematician's sense of humor. (I mean that as a _good_ thing.)

For another, it's very informative. The topics of the chapters are widely scattered -- John Horton Conway's game of Life; predator-prey systems; the Prisoner's Dilemma and the evolution of cooperation -- but what they have in common is their relevance to evolutionary biology, ecology, and psychology. And I don't personally know of any other single volume that introduces _all_ of them to the lay reader -- let alone that does so as well and charmingly as Sigmund's book.

I originally set out to review it because I had just written a review of William Provine's _The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics_. These two books work pretty well together: Provine gives a "diachronic" account of the historical development of the field (or at least one of its major subfields), and Sigmund gives a "synchronic" account of its present state (or nearly so; the book was written in 1993). Between the two of them, they ought to give the interested reader a pretty healthy sense of what's so intellectually captivating about this field.

Well, if that sounds good to you, pick up a used copy of Sigmund's book. Or maybe, by the time you read this, it will be back in print.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Combination, August 12, 2003

By 

Scipio (Chicagoland, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour (Penguin science) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you found this book, you are probably either very persistant or very lucky - when I put in the title it doesn't even come up in the first several pages on Amazon's own search engine. In any case, you have come across a real gem.

This book is an amazing combination of mathematics, science, reason and wit. It is a great way for those of us who are not particularly well-versed in biology or math to learn a considerable amount of important knowledge in a short time. Sigmund manages the impossible in this very well-written book: to explain his rather complex subject thoroughly, but concisely, without becoming tedious or condescending.

I found it humbling that someone could be such a good natural writer (I believe English is not even his native tongue) and to have such mastery of a technical subject. While this is not a casual read, it is consistently intriguing and thought-provoking and is well worth the effort.

I also find it rather amazing that this book is not a best-seller (at least as far as any book dealing with mathematics and biology can be). It's hard to believe there is anything else out there that attempts to bring scientific knowlege to the uninformed with such profound success.

I would say that the best thing about this book to me was that it showed the inherent logic of life. In this regard, the chapter on the "prisoner's dilemma" was particularly enlightening as to the underlying cause of much of human behavior.

In sum, a brilliant, well-written book that might challenge you, but won't make you reach for your calculator.

As a p.s. years after my original review - while this is out-of-print, it is evidently still in demand. I was hoping to buy a used hardcover edition for my library and can't find any available. The cost of buying even secondhand paperback copies is astronomical. Perhaps another edition is in order???

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars informative , funny and easy to read, May 15, 1999

By 

Esteban A.Fernandez ([e-mail]) (Buenos Aires-Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour (Penguin science) (Mass Market Paperback)

You'll learn a lot with this one! How can an Austrian Mathematician be so funny?A clear guide to the state of the art in biology.Sigmund makes connections with computer programming,human behaviour,sex, altruism.No unnecessary tedious explanations,complex only when it must be. In short a great book and a great teacher. Do not miss this one!!