
Biodiversity May Thrive Through Games of Rock-Paper-Scissors - pseudolus
https://www.quantamagazine.org/biodiversity-may-thrive-through-games-of-rock-paper-scissors-20200305/
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blaze33
Alan Watts discussed at length how modern science mainly focused on the study
of things through the analysis of their inner properties, mechanisms,
components, etc. Thing is, nothing actually exists in a void: what something
is only tells us half of the story because in what context it exists matters
as much.

Everything constantly interacts with its environment in a complex web of
interactions. As apples grow from the tree, the Earth grows people. No
environment, no organism. One always goes with the other.

So, back to engineering particular bacteria, it's no surprise they would only
survive in the long term if their environment somehow "allows" it: the
engineered bacteria eventually needs to find a viable place in its ecosystem
where it fits. So while trying to grow a single new bacteria consistently
failed, introducing multiple ones adds the fact they're now coming with their
own mini-ecosystem to support them, apparently improving their odds to find
their own place in the environment.

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ajuc
This is what people designing multiplayer games try to do - keep meta as
interesting as possibly by making as many strategies viable as possible.

That's why Starcraft was the start of mass-scale esport. Because it had 3
races to choose from instead of just 2 as previous real-time strategy games
used to have, and because the ambition was to keep them balanced.

It meant even if matchups weren't perfectly balanced (they never are) - it was
possible to make each faction(race) viable over many matches - because third
of the time you play vs same faction, and third of the time you play vs
faction you're favoured against.

It doesn't have to be just 3, either, there's often several styles within each
multiplayer race/faction - for example usually early-game strategies win vs
late-game, late-game beats mid-game, and mid-game beats early-game. But there
are special cases and close calls between particular ones of course.

BTW for people with experience in multiplayer games who want to laugh a little
and look at biology from a different angle I recommend TierZoo youtube channel
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHsRtomD4twRf5WVHHk-
cMw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHsRtomD4twRf5WVHHk-cMw)

It's mostly a parody based on the premise that Earth is a multiplayer game,
the nature is balance-patching every few million years, and the channel is a
guide for the game :) The analogies are sometimes surprisingly close.

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ncmncm
This has been noted as the reason sex is necessary. It has been called the Red
Queen's Race. In its most restricted form it is the process of keeping ahead
of parasite load or, from the parasite's viewpoint, keeping up with the host.

~~~
aldoushuxley001
Or, put more simply: You have to keep running just to stay in the same place.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Or, put even more simply: a treadmill.

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ASalazarMX
A game of rock-paper-scissors where some of them are weird and have some
characteristics of the others.

P1: Rock!

P2: Deformed paper scissor!

