Re: Empirically Measuring Mutualism In Man


"Tim Tyler" <tim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:diq3mv$1it9$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Nick Kibourn <nkilbourn2002@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote or quoted:
>
> > In a 2004 tournament Tit for Tat was beaten for the first time. A strategy
> > created by the University of Southampton detected (by means of a
> > pre-arranged pattern of seemingly random operations) whether its counterpart
> > was another instance of the Southampton strategy. In cases where the
> > counterpart is determined not to be using the Southampton strategy, it acts
> > as a spoiler for the non-Southampton player. In cases where it is, the two
> > form a master slave relationship, where the slave sacrifice's itself for the
> > master by always cooperating and letting the master get away with never
> > cooperating, which maximises the number of points for the master. In the
> > competition where hundreds of agents are entered and compete against each
> > other, Southampton entered 60 agents, guaranteeing that a few master agents
> > gain incredibly high scores by sacrificing the rest of the slaves agents to
> > the bottom of the score list.
>
> You would have to look a long way to find an analogous strategy in nature.

Actually, no you wouldn't. Most metazoan cells are slaves with a
miserable 'score'. But a few metazoan cells - the germ line cells -
score high - primarily due to the sacrifices of the far more numerous
slaves.

The situation in social insects with sterile castes is quite similar.

Of course, these organisms (or cells) are playing a game in which
this kind of asymmetry provides a net positive sum. In the prisoner's
dilemma, the payoffs are set so that both-cooperate is the only
strategy pair which yields a net positive result. So perhaps my
'counterexamples' don't address your point.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Southampton strategy
    ... > was another instance of the Southampton strategy. ... > form a master slave relationship, where the slave sacrifice's itself for the ... > cooperating, which maximises the number of points for the master. ... > other, Southampton entered 60 agents, guaranteeing that a few master agents ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Empirically Measuring Mutualism In Man
    ... >>> whether its counterpart was another instance of the Southampton ... >>> form a master slave relationship, where the slave sacrifice's itself for the ... >>> of the slaves agents to the bottom of the score list. ... The Southampton strategy works through a sort of kin selection ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Liverpool?
    ... The reason I am asking is that ancestors traveled to Liverpool from ... Cornwall rather than to Southampton which is nearer. ... Very few slaves ever went through Liverpool. ... then sailed to West Africa with trade goods, ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)