The evolution of cooperation Book

It's not overstating the case to say that Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation is literally the most important book of the last 100 years and will change the course of human history.

Um, Andy, I think you need to revisit the definitions of certain words, like "literally" and "overstating."

OK, granted. But the implications of the game theory research and analysis presented here are so profoundly important, it's difficult not to descend into hyperbole. Or ascend, as the case may be. Sure, at first glance it appears to be an account of legions of math and computer nerds trying to beat one another at a silly game. Who would suspect that these nerds may have essentially discovered the philosophical glue that holds all of society together? And done so with programs written in just a handful of code lines written in BASIC and FORTRAN, no less?

I did, but I cheated, of course. I was already convinced of game theory's profound significance before I ever picked this up. I was doing research, reading everything I could find on the subject for my own book about game theory, my premise being that these astoundingly important ideas might be better received if put in the context of a novel with snappy dialogue and lots of horrific violence.

No horrific violence here, nor snappy dialogue either. Just a clear and lucid explanation of a very complex subject. Few of us will ever find ourselves in a literal equivalent of the prisoner's dilemma (PD), forced to decide whether to testify against a partner-in-crime to receive a lighter prison sentence. But we find ourselves in analogous situations literally every day, and mind you: I've double checked my usage of "literally" here and this time I'm sticking by it.

These PD situations are so omnipresent they are virtually invisible, as are the long-established cooperative equilibria that prevent all of us from continuously stabbing one another in the back as we fall into the alluring Nash equilibrium of mutual defection, leaving behind vast hordes of stabbed people and a few smug mathematicians mumbling "I told you so" as they tend to their wounds.

Even more important than providing a mathematical explanation of why (most) people aren't just total and complete pricks (please refrain from pointing out noteworthy exceptions. We all know some. Oftentimes I'm one of them.), and why we've been able to develop a complex society that could not exist without seemingly irrational altruism, modern game theory teaches us how we can create an even better society.

Cooperation has evolved over the course of millions of years by participants lacking the slightest knowledge of game theory, or, indeed, opposable thumbs. Evolution is a highly effective way to produce desirable results without any thought or effort whatsoever, provided one has a few million years to spare and doesn't mind a lot of pain and suffering along the way. For beings with the cognitive abilities to understand the forces at play, they can achieve the same results far more efficiently.

It's a very complex non-zero-sum game we're all playing. We can all score a lot more points if we play it right.

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I'm going to stick in one last plug for my book, Practical Applications of Game Theory , which dramatizes an actual prisoner in prison facing a literal example of the prisoner's dilemma. It's full of math, snappy dialogue, and, I should reiterate: horrific violence.