The Evolution of Cooperation: Revised Edition Revised Edition

by Robert Axelrod (Author),‎ Richard Dawkins (Foreword)

71 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0465005642

ISBN-10: 0465005640

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The Evolution of Cooperation provides valuable insights into the age-old question of whether unforced cooperation is ever possible. Widely praised and much-discussed, this classic book explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists-whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals-when there is no central authority to police their actions. The problem of cooperation is central to many different fields. Robert Axelrod recounts the famous computer tournaments in which the "cooperative" program Tit for Tat recorded its stunning victories, explains its application to a broad spectrum of subjects, and suggests how readers can both apply cooperative principles to their own lives and teach cooperative principles to others.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This widely-praised and much-discussed book explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists - whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals - when there is no central authority to police their actions.

About the Author

Robert Axelrod is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. A MacArthur Prize Fellow, he is a leading expert on game theory, artificial intelligence, evolutionary biology, mathematical modeling, and complexity theory. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; Revised edition (December 5, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465005640
ISBN-13: 978-0465005642
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 71 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #34 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution > Game Theory
- #714 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Social Psychology & Interactions
- #869 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Applied

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Steve Reina

Why do we do unto others as we would have them do unto us?

November 2, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It's perhaps one of the most fasicinating quirks of psychological research that one of the most ground breaking findings in human psychology was achieved by means of a computer tournament.

That tournament was sponsored by Robert Axelrod of the University of Michigan who developed a computer environment that would different game programs against each other to determine which survival strategy was best adapted to survival.

For those believers of life, nasty, brutish and short, the findings were nothing short of astonishing: specifically that when actors were invovled in situations where they would be repeatedly interacting with each other, survival was best enhanced by cooperation.

Otherwise known as "the golden rule" of doing unto others as you would have done unto you, a computer program known as Tit for Tat outperformed all other competitors by first seeking cooperation and then narrowly mirroring the actions of its counterparts.

In other words, if Tit for Tat met a competitor it would first seek cooperation. If the competitor cooperated, Tit for Tat would thereafter cooperate. If the competitor defected, Tit for Tat would itself immediately defect but thereafter again seek cooperation by cooperating whenever the competitor thereafter chose to cooperate.

Since the publication of the original article detailing Axelrod's findings twenty five years ago, the study of cooperation or reciprocal ultruism has found applications not only in human behavior but also in genetics and evolution itself.

Inside every cell of your body are anywhere ranging to around 1000 mitochondria. If the test for different life forms are organisms which have their own DNA, mitochondria qualify. Yet, they have always been a part of human biology. And they have been there own life domain for the better part of two billion (or more) years.

Mitochondria's ability to productively work with their host cells is an example of both genetic and biological reciprocal ultruism.

Like any ground breaking work, like Newton's Principia or Darwin's Origin of Species, I was attracted to this work so I could better witness the original flash of genius. And like with Newton's Principia and Darwin's Origin of Species I was not disappointed but found many instances in which the original researchers had advanced speculations that frankly would remain fertile areas for further research. In the case of this book, I would include Axelrod's discussion of how to better take advantage of the benefits of reciprocal ultruism and also how systems can be more reciprocal ultruism friendly.

Interestingly, the places where reciprocal ultruism has tragically broken down are places that would easily be predicted by the over arching theory.

For students of genetics, biology and even behavior I can't recommend this book highly enough. In fact, in addition to this book I would also recommed the following:

Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley which discusses the genetic aspects of reciprocal ultruism;

Prisoner's Dilemma by William Poundstone which discusses game theory as a branch of theoretical mathematics;

Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins which is just fun; and

Oneness by Jeffrey Moses which provides verbatim quotes of the golden rule and other doxology by means of direct quotes from the world's leading religions. There's nothing like seeing material which so exactly corresponds to theoretical predictions to give you a sense of the explanatory power of the theory(ies) involved.

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Daniel O. Cajueiro

How to play the iterated prisoner dilemma

February 15, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a master piece about how to play the iterated prisoner dilemma and the evolution of cooperation. The amazing thing is that it was written 20 years ago and it is not out of date. Otherwise, it is an amazing presentation of the topic, mainly because of its simplicity and clearness!

Chapter 1 presents the main point of the book: "How cooperation emerges in a world of egoists without central authority". This chapter also introduces the main representation of the problem (based on the prisoners dilemma), several examples of cooperation, the main arguments for cooperation (such as the fact that the prisoner dilemma is not a zero sum game, altruism, the size of the discount factor etc) and the first proposition "if the discount factor is high, there is no best strategy".

Chapter 2 describes the computer tournament where Tit for Tat is the winner (in almost all situations). I mean the author promoted a tournament for the study of the strategies that can be used to play the iterated prisoner dilemma. Besides the main conclusions of this chapter, it is also interesting because of its historical appealing. Maybe this is one of the first important applications of computer science in Economics.

Chapter 3 is one of the most lucid introductions to evolutionary game theory. Although today we may find very good books about this topic (such as Game theory evolving - Gints, Evolutionary game theory - Weibull, Evolutionary Games and Population Dynamics - Hofbauer and Sigmund), the main ideas are presented in just few pages with almost no math (this is good for some guys). Furthermore, the author uses evolutionary game theory to analyze the stability of Tit for tat, other nice strategies and the strategy the defects in all rounds.

Chapter 4 the book presents the classical example of cooperation that arose in World war I.

Chapter 5 (previously published in American political science review) deals with the evolution of cooperation in biological systems applying the main ideas discussed in previous chapters.

Chapter 6 is about how to deal with prisoners dilemmas (in real life?!). The author provides a list of advices and justifies why Tit for Tat works. For instance, it is a "nice" strategy. I mean "Be nice". But if one is not nice with you, do not be nice either.

Chapter 7 is about how to promote cooperation. What factors in the game are necessary in order to promote cooperation. For instance, the continuous interaction between the participants is fundamental.

Chapter 8 discusses how cooperation is affected by some important issues such as the fact that people are divided in groups of similar characteristics (such as race, age etc), reputation etc.

Chapter 9 is like a summary of some ideas of the book.

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Amazon Customer

I have always been interested in the idea of morality ...

February 11, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I have always been interested in the idea of morality is something inherent in us and is partly the result of evolution. This book's approach is fascinating in using games theory to shed light on that possibility.

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Edoardo Angeloni

An interesting application of game theory

July 1, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book talks about the game theory in a very nice way and so it allows to Hofstaedter to prefer this model of the mathematics to the reallity. In fact it includes also phylosophical arguments related to the human behavior and to the biological life. The model can be considered starting from the difference between case cooperative or not, what studied particullary by Schelling. It exists an informatic program which Axerold verifies here. Schelling so justifyies that the individual issues produce consequences into the one system.

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Pancho

Practical lessons from a simple model

November 3, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The vast majority of social interactions in life are not short-lived zero-sum games, but repeating instances of mutually profitable exchanges. Winners are those that elicit cooperation from others, even if never once do they vanquish an individual opponent. The simple prisoner's dilemma game provides a great analogy for these interactions.

But the author goes beyond the analogy. He provides a good explanation of how cooperation flourishes, despite selfish individuals and ineffective central authorities, and without philosophical or supernatural crutches. Great read.

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Most recent customer reviews

Amazon Customer

Four Stars

Brilliant insights and fascinating facts but poorly written and endlessly repeating itself.

Published 2 months ago

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Five Stars

Great read, super interesting

Published 1 year ago

R.L.D.

A different way of thinking

An amazing book that gave me a lot of context for thinking when I first read it in mid 1980s. A former student had given me a copy.

You can read it in a couple of hours, but you'll be thinking about it years later

Thought-provoking but, despite its academic premise it's very easy reading. Thoroughly engaging.

What a delight. I almost never read novels

My son wanted me to buy this for his classes. I ended up reading it. What a delight.
I almost never read novels. For me a book needs to tickle my brain.Read more

Published on June 25, 2015

CESAREO R. GUILLERMO

Five Stars

As expected. Thanks.

Published on June 22, 2015

Kindle Customer

Absolutely bored to tears

Purchased it to use as a class textbook, one of the few texts for a class I didn't finish. Absolutely bored to tears.Read more

Published on January 2, 2015

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