48 posts · 9,303 views
This is the blog of the evolutionary games group that launched as an extension of the earlier evolutionary game theory reading group at McGill University. It is organized by Artem Kaznatcheev and collaborates closely with Thomas R. Shultz‘s Laboratory for Natural and Simulated Cognition. We are primarily interested in the evolution of ethnocentrism, the interplay of evolution and cognition, and the effects of network topology on evolutionary simulations. Our reading concentrates on papers that apply nice analytic or computational models to questions in EGT. If you are interested in contributing to this project then feel free to email me!
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- May 23, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 13 views
Quasi-delusions and inequality aversion
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Patient M: It’s impossible —- no one could urinate into that bottle -— at least no woman could. I’m furious with her [these are the patient's emphases] and I’m damned if I am going to do it unless she gives me another kind of bottle. It’s just impossible to use that little thing. Analyst: It […]... Read more »
Fehr, E., & Schmidt, K. (1999) A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3), 817-868. DOI: 10.1162/003355399556151
- May 21, 2013
- 10:15 AM
- 26 views
Algorithmic view of historicity and separation of scales in biology
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
A Science publications is one of the best ways to launch your career, especially if it is based on your undergraduate work, part of which you carried out with makeshift equipment in your dorm! That is the story of Thomas M.S. Chang, who in 1956 started experiments (partially carried out in his residence room in […]... Read more »
Pais, D., & Leonard, N. (2013) Adaptive network dynamics and evolution of leadership in collective migration. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena. DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2013.04.014
- May 19, 2013
- 11:45 PM
- 26 views
Natural algorithms and the sciences
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Today, I am passing through New York City on my way to Princeton’s Center for Computational Intractability for a workshop on Natural Algorithms and the Sciences (NA&S). The two day meeting will cover everything from molecular algorithms for learning and experiments on artificial cells to bounded rationality in decision-making and the effects of network topology […]... Read more »
Chazelle, B. (2012) Natural algorithms and influence systems. Communications of the ACM, 55(12), 101. DOI: 10.1145/2380656.2380679
- May 18, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 48 views
Ethnocentrism, religion, and austerity: a science poster for the humanities
by Thomas Shultz in Evolutionary Games Group
Artem Kaznatcheev and I presented a poster on May 4th at the University of British Columbia to a highly interdisciplinary conference on religion. The conference acronym is CERC, which translates as Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium. Most of the 60-some attendees are religion scholars and social scientists from North American and European universities. Many […]... Read more »
Kaznatcheev, Artem, & Shultz, Thomas R. (2011) Ethnocentrism maintains cooperation, but keeping one’s children close fuels it. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 3174-3179. info:/
- May 16, 2013
- 07:00 AM
- 30 views
Did group selection play a role in the evolution of plasmid endosymbiosis?
by Eric Bolo in Evolutionary Games Group
Bacterial plasmids are nucleotide sequences floating in the cytoplasm of bacteria. These molecules replicate independently from the main chromosomal DNA and are not essential to the survival or replication of their host. Plasmids are thought to be part of the bacterial domain’s mobilome (for overview, see Siefert, 2009), a sort of genetic commonwealth which most, […]... Read more »
Paulsson J. (2002) Multileveled selection on plasmid replication. Genetics, 161(4), 1373-84. PMID: 12238464
- May 15, 2013
- 11:31 PM
- 42 views
Evolution explains the fundamental constants of physics
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
While speaking at TEDxMcGill 2009, Jan Florjanczyk — friend, quantum information researcher, and former schoolmate of mine — provided one of the clearest characterization of theoretical physics that I’ve had the please of hearing: Theoretical physics is about tweaking the knobs and dials and assumptions of the laws that govern the universe and then interpolating […]... Read more »
Gardner, A., & Conlon, J. (2013) Cosmological natural selection and the purpose of the universe. Complexity. DOI: 10.1002/cplx.21446
- May 14, 2013
- 09:30 PM
- 36 views
Four color problem, odd Goldbach conjecture, and the curse of computing
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
For over twenty-three hundred years, at least since the publication of Euclid’s Elements, the conjecture and proof of new theorems has been the sine qua non of mathematics. The method of proof is at “the heart of mathematics, the royal road to creating analytical tools and catalyzing growth” (Rav, 1999; pg 6). Proofs are not […]... Read more »
Rav, Y. (1999) Why Do We Prove Theorems?. Philosophia Mathematica, 7(1), 5-41. DOI: 10.1093/philmat/7.1.5
- May 13, 2013
- 05:30 AM
- 48 views
Quasi-magical thinking and superrationality for Bayesian agents
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
As part of our objective and subjective rationality model, we want a focal agent to learn the probability that others will cooperate given that the focal agent cooperates () or defects (). In a previous post we saw how to derive point estimates for and (and learnt that they are the maximum likelihood estimates): , […]... Read more »
Masel, J. (2007) A Bayesian model of quasi-magical thinking can explain observed cooperation in the public good game. Journal of Economic Behavior , 64(2), 216-231. DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2005.07.003
- May 12, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 62 views
Quasi-magical thinking and the public good
by Marcel Montrey in Evolutionary Games Group
Cooperation is a puzzle because it is not obvious why cooperation, which is good for the group, is so common, despite the fact that defection is often best for the individual. Though we tend to view this issue through the lens of the prisoner’s dilemma, Artem recently pointed me to a paper by Joanna Masel, […]... Read more »
Masel, J. (2007) A Bayesian model of quasi-magical thinking can explain observed cooperation in the public good game. Journal of Economic Behavior , 64(2), 216-231. DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2005.07.003
- May 10, 2013
- 11:30 PM
- 50 views
Learning and evolution are different dynamics
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
A couple of weeks ago, if you randomly woke me in the middle of the night and demanded to know the fundamental difference between evolution and learning as adaptive processes, I would probably respond: “how did you get into my house? and umm… I guess they are mostly the same, it is just a matter […]... Read more »
Brenner, T. (1998) Can evolutionary algorithms describe learning processes?. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 8(3), 271-283. DOI: 10.1007/s001910050064
- May 8, 2013
- 11:30 PM
- 45 views
Evolutionary games in set structured populations
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
We have previously discussed the importance of population structure in evolutionary game theory, and looked at the Ohtsuki-Nowak transform for analytic studies of games on one of the simplest structures — random regular graphs. However, there is another extremely simple structure to consider: a family of inviscid sets. We can think of each agent as [...]... Read more »
Tarnita, C., Antal, T., Ohtsuki, H., & Nowak, M. (2009) Evolutionary dynamics in set structured populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(21), 8601-8604. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0903019106
- May 5, 2013
- 07:00 PM
- 85 views
Social learning dilemma
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Last week, my father sent me a link to the 100 top-ranked specialties in the sciences and social sciences. The Web of Knowledge report considered 10 broad areas[1] of natural and social science, and for each one listed 10 research fronts that they consider as the key fields to watch in 2013 and are “hot [...]... Read more »
Rendell L, Boyd R, Cownden D, Enquist M, Eriksson K, Feldman MW, Fogarty L, Ghirlanda S, Lillicrap T, & Laland KN. (2010) Why copy others? Insights from the social learning strategies tournament. Science, 328(5975), 208-213. PMID: 20378813
- May 3, 2013
- 11:00 PM
- 61 views
Evolutionary economics and game theory
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Like the agents they study, evolutionary economics is highly heterogeneous. Models are ad-hoc and serve as heuristic guides to specific problems. This is similar to theoretical biology, where evolutionary models are independent of each other. Even the general theory of inclusive fitness does not provide a non-controversial unifying framework. Although there is no single framework, evolutionary economists are united by four main assumptions about the world:... Read more »
Hodgson, G., & Huang, K. (2010) Evolutionary game theory and evolutionary economics: are they different species?. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 22(2), 345-366. DOI: 10.1007/s00191-010-0203-3
- April 21, 2013
- 08:00 AM
- 31 views
Interdisciplinitis: Do entropic forces cause adaptive behavior?
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Physicists are notorious for infecting other disciplines. Sometimes this can be extremely rewarding, but most of the time it is silly. I’ve already featured an example where one of the founders of algorithmic information theory completely missed the point of Darwinism; researchers working in statistical mechanics and information theory seem particularly susceptible to interdisciplinitis. The [...]... Read more »
Wissner-Gross, A.D., & Freer, C.E. (2013) Causal Entropic Forces. Phys. Rev. Lett., 110(16), 168702. info:/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.168702
- April 20, 2013
- 04:00 AM
- 33 views
Will the droids take academic jobs?
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
As a researcher, one of the biggest challenges I face is keeping up with the scientific literature. This is further exasperated by working in several disciplines, and without a more senior advisor or formal training in most of them. The Evolutionary Game Theory Reading Group, and later this blog, started as an attempt to help [...]... Read more »
Davis, A., Wiegers, T., Johnson, R., Lay, J., Lennon-Hopkins, K., Saraceni-Richards, C., Sciaky, D., Murphy, C., & Mattingly, C. (2013) Text Mining Effectively Scores and Ranks the Literature for Improving Chemical-Gene-Disease Curation at the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database. PLoS ONE, 8(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058201
- April 18, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 14 views
Continuing our exploration of group selection
by Eric Bolo in Evolutionary Games Group
This Tuesday, I gave the second of two presentations for the EGT Reading group, both focused on the theory of group selection. Though I am currently working outside of academia, it has been a pleasure to pursue my interests in ecology, and our group discussions have proven to be both enjoyable and challenging. The first [...]... Read more »
Marshall James A.R. (2011) Group selection and kin selection: formally equivalent approaches. Trends in Ecology , 26(7), 325-332. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.04.008
- April 15, 2013
- 05:30 AM
- 26 views
Mathematical Turing test: Readable proofs from your computer
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
We have previously discussed the finicky task of defining intelligence, but surely being able to do math qualifies? Even if the importance of mathematics in science is questioned by people as notable as E.O. Wilson, surely nobody questions it as an intelligent activity? Mathematical reasoning is not necessary for intelligence, but surely it is sufficient? [...]... Read more »
Ganesalingam Mohan. (2013) The Language of Mathematics: A Linguistic and Philosophical Investigation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-37012-0
- April 14, 2013
- 05:30 AM
- 20 views
Egalitarians’ dilemma and the cognitive cost of ethnocentrism
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Ethnocentrism (or contingent altruism) can be viewed as one of many mechanisms for enabling cooperation. The agents are augmented with a hereditary tag and the strategy space is extended from just cooperation/defection to behaviour that can be contingent on if the diad share or differ in their tag. The tags and strategy are not inherently [...]... Read more »
Kaznatcheev, Artem. (2010) The cognitive cost of ethnocentrism. Proceedings of the 32nd annual conference of the cognitive science society. info:/
- April 8, 2013
- 12:00 PM
- 104 views
Programming playground: Cells as (quantum) computers?
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Nearly a year ago, the previous post in this series introduced a way for programmers to play around with biology: a model that simulated the dynamics of a whole cell at unprecedented levels of details. But what if you want to play with the real thing? Can you program a living cell? Can you compute [...]... Read more »
Bonnet J, Yin P, Ortiz ME, Subsoontorn P, & Endy D. (2013) Amplifying Genetic Logic Gates. Science. PMID: 23539178
- March 29, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 102 views
Individual versus systemic risk in asset allocation
by Yunjun Yang in Evolutionary Games Group
Proponents of free markets often believe in an “invisible hand” that guides an economic system without external controls like government regulations. Therefore a highly efficient economic equilibrium can be created if all market participants act purely out of self-interest. In the paper titled “Individual versus systemic risk and the Regulator’s Dilemma.”, Beale et al. (2011) applied [...]... Read more »
Beale N., Rand D. G., Battey H., Croxson K., May R. M., & Nowak M. A. (2011) Individual versus systemic risk and the Regulator's Dilemma. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(31), 12647-12652. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1105882108
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