15. Humans are cooperative by nature (solving TOC)

Question 1

Explain competition and the selfish gene

Answer 1

Darwin: struggle for existence
Dawkins: nice guys finish last
Natural selection does favour self interest

Question 2

Discuss how we might have misread Darwin and biology

Answer 2

Social Darwinism. Instead: All organisms have self interest. Leave offspring behind, and don’t care whether by competition or cooperation.
“It’s not the strongest of the organization (species) that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”
- Darwin
Misreading of human behaviour, despite Trump
Cooperation within and between species is one of the marvels of life

Question 3

Name some examples of cooperation between species (mutualism in the biosphere)

Answer 3

Eukaryotic cell
Plant root (fungi kill plants, was a paradise relationship that became mutualism)
Leguminous plant make a home for the bacteria
Pollination
Big seed dispersal

Question 4

What is the lesson of the riches from Braiding Sweetgrass

Answer 4

These ancients carry teachings in the ways that they live. They remind us of the enduring power that arises from mutualism, from the sharing of the gifts carried by each species. Balanced reciprocity has enabled them to flourish under the most stressful of conditions.
Their success is measured not by consumption and growth, but by graceful longevity and simplicity, by persistence while the world changed around them. It is changing now.

Question 5

Give some examples of within species cooperation

Answer 5

Bees (relationship with the queen)
Fish (anti predator)
Primates
In each elements, elements of self and group interests

Question 6

What are the routes to cooperative behaviour (just the name, no need to describe each) (4)

Answer 6

Kin selection, Direct reciprocity, Spatial structure, and Reputation

Question 7

Explain kin selection

Answer 7

Blood is thicker than water. JBS Haldane was asked “would you risk your life to save a drowning man?” No, but for 2 brothers or 8 cousins yes

Question 8

Explain direct reciprocity

Answer 8

The golden rule “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”
Robert Trivers: each individual human is seen possessing altruistic and cheating tendencies
Prisoner’s dilemma game

Question 9

Explain the implications of the prisoner’s dilemma game

Answer 9

Best individual strategy: defect
Best mutual strategy: cooperation.
There is a tension between individual and collective

Question 10

Beyond Hardin: how can you relate the prisoner’s dilemma to TOC?

Answer 10

If TOC is the metaphor for all our sustainability problems, then:
We have a choice between sustainable harvest and over harvest. The best individual strategy = over harvest. The best collective strategy = sustainable harvest.
It is NOT a zero-sum game!

Overharvest is the best strategy. Normal people will choose over/harvest (race for fish). Only seems like a dilemma because mutual sustainability leads to highest payoff (i.e. MSY)
How do we get mutual cooperation/sustainability?
by playing the game repeatedly. Then, different dynamics. Tit for tat can beat defect by playing with other cooperative strategies.
TFT wins the iterated prisoner’s dilemma, without beating any other strategies. Defects don’t do well against each other

Question 11

Explain spatial structure

Answer 11

Spatially structured environment also helps. There are 8 initial strategies. TFT eventually takes over. Neighbourhoods and repeated playing are important.

Question 12

Insights from Prisoner’s dilemma fill in the blank:

a) If you want cooperation, make the world ___ (Local: create neighborhoods): ___ ___.
b) Play ____.
c) Recognize ___, memory.
d) Retaliate or punish ___.
e) ___ with those you trust
f) Eternal corporations (suckers) lead to ___.
g) Should the meek inherit the Earth?

Answer 12

a) smaller, Spatial structure
b) Repeatedly
c) Neighbours
d) defectors
e) Cooperate
f) defection
g) No! the meek shall endanger the heart (Karl Sigmund 1993) More optimistic view of the world than Hardin’s

Question 13

a) T/F: We are a cooperative specie by nature
b) T/F: We are wired to be sensitive to generosity and to cheating
c) Examples of tit for tat in our lives?

Answer 13

a) True
b) True
c) Exchanging birthday gifts, study groups, friendships

Question 14

FITB: solving the global commons

a) Sometimes, local and global have the same solution (T/F)
b) Greed is what will give us the answer (T/F)
c) Change the structure of the game so it is not ___ ___

Answer 14

a) True
b) False: about rational choices
c) zero sum