Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In May 1992, within the Arctic Circle and under the midnight sun, a small group of researchers from diverse disciplines met to study one of the most fundamental questions of existence: What are the roles of conflict and cooperation in the evolution of life?
The answers that came—from such fields as physics, literature, biology, economics, linguistics, and computer science—shed new light on this very old question.
Sponsored by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research, these internationally renowned scholars discussed and debated the complementary effects of individual self-interest and collective group interests. The twelve chapters in this volume, representing a wide range of perspectives, are the fruit of this meeting. They illustrate the dynamics of evolution and, contrary to many traditional ideas of nature, make a compelling case for the crucial role of cooperation in successful evolutionary adaptation.
The fascination of this volume lies in watching the push and pull of conflict and cooperation play out in such areas as economic organization, computer science, the development of urban structures, the evolution of languages, and molecular formation in the primeval environment.
Among the specific issues raised and illuminated:
Theoretical and evolutionary biologists, system theorists, economists, computer scientists, and mathematical modelers will find Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes a provocative and stimulating book that may open new perspectives on their own work.
Is Nature "red in tooth and claw''?
The twelve chapters in this volume offer an overview of the dynamics of evolutionary phenomena across a stimulating array of fields, including biology, economics, literature, physics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. Written by internationally recognized experts, they trace the issue of conflict vs. cooperation through such topics as molecular formation, city planning, and the building of intellectual structures.
Urban Systems and Evolution —W. Brian Arthur
Modeling Errors and Parasites in the Evolution of Primitive Life: Possibilities of Spatial Self-Structuring —Clas Blomberg and Mikael Cronhjort
Cooperation: The Ghost in the Machinery of Evolution —John L. Casti
Randomness in Arithmetic and the Decline and Fall of Reductionism in Pure Mathematics —Gregory J. Chaitin
Narratives of Evolution and the Evolution of Narratives —N. Katherine Hayles
Biologically Bound Behavior, Free Will, and the Evolution of Humans —Philip Lieberman
A Hierarchy of Complex Behaviors in Microbiological Systems —Erik Mosekilde, Heidi Stranddorf, Jesper Skovhus Thomsen and Gerold Baier
Chaotic Dynamics of Linguistic-like Processes at the Syntactic and Semantic Levels: In Pursuit of a Multifractal Attractor —John S. Nicolis and Anastassis A. Katsikas
Cooperation and Chimera —Robert Rosen
Minimal Properties for Evolutionary Optimization —Peter Schuster
A Perception Machine Built of Many Cooperating Agents —Erik Skarman
Language, Evolution, and the Theory of Games —Karl Wärneryd
Theoretical and evolutionary biologists, system theorists, economists, computer scientists, and mathematical modelers will find Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes a strong stimulus to the evolution of their own ideas.
The publisher, John Wiley & Sons
A collection of articles comprising the behavior and modeling of couples systems. Examines the dynamics of evolution as it relates to an individual's self-interest and collective group interests. Twelve chapters, written by international experts, span such fields as philosophy, physics, biology and economics, offering a superb overview of how successful evolutionary adaptations rely on a judicious combination of self-interest and altruism. Can also be used as a supplementary graduate text.
Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes
Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes,John Casti,Anders Karlqvist,Wiley-Interscience,0471594873,Cooperation,Evolution,Evolution (Biology),General,Life Sciences - Evolution,Mathematical Models,Organic Evolution,Science,Science/Mathematics,Science / Evolution
Books Review:
Recommended Books