

Why cooperators always win in the long run - userulluipeste
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-evolution-youre-selfish.html

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infinity0
This is an old idea, nice to see it get more mainstream visibility.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evoluti...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution)
(1902)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Cooperation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Cooperation)
(1981)

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volume
Maybe it was notable enough by the way they came to their conclusions, and
that it was an interdisciplinary team that worked on it? I'm not in the field
but found the post interesting and from a new angle.

But yes, it's not radically new idea. In cash game poker (in situations where
you that much better than your opponent), you don't necessary want to win a
regular's money consistently all the time. Better to keep your customer
returning by showing some vulnerability.

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infinity0
How is "keep your customer returning by showing some vulnerability" at all
related to mutual aid / co-operation? In spirit it's still an aggressive
strategy and relies on your customers being dumb enough not to notice.

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zdw
It would be interesting to see the results of their model if it had included
modern methods for selfish actors to create artificial scarcity, ala the
copyright and patent systems that currently exist.

In fact, I wonder if they allowed for any "market" distorting (whatever that
is in context) actions to take place, or if that was to complex.

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RobAley
Those selfish actors aren't working alone though, they work in the co-
operation of others, governments in the main. That co-operation appears to pay
dividends for both parties.

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3pt14159
There is also the concept of Daisy World, which demonstrates that even when
organisms are selfish, they can lead to mutual positive outcomes.

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turbojerry
For those who don't know about Daisyworld-

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gVERGAieng](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gVERGAieng)

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lcedp
But also there are conmen which will appear as cooperators until certain
moment.

