Saturday, January 21, 2012

"The Evolution of Cooperation" Review



Hoahh.. Finally, I've managed to finish Axelrod's classical book, The Evolution of Cooperation. I've borrowed the book from the company's library several months ago. The book is about how cooperation can emerge in the world of self interested agents. Based on 2 series of iterated prisoner dilemma competitions, it is shown that the unsophisticated TIT for TAT strategy is able to defeat its competing strategies, which often utilize more complicated approaches. The tactical characterization of the TIT for TAT simple strategy is then explained, generalized to a broader context (such as the world war 1 and the field of evolutionary biology), and compiled into cooperation strategies advises. For me, the first 3 chapters (out of 9 chapters) are the most interesting ones. The rest is rather lengthy elaboration for the first three chapters' pointers. The lesson offered is definitely an eye opener, the "story telling" style is not for me though. Anyway,the book is a must have for my private library and most importantly I've read it completely yeaa.. :p


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