Mathematics of Evolution Part 5

Concluding video of the series. The mathenmatical basis for altruism,, which is key to all social structure and behaviour.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Darwin
• Game
• Theory
• Mathematics
• Evolution

[StrikaAmaru]

4000 views on the first, 800 on this one... why do 7/8 of people have the attention span of goldfish?

[HowieInTheUK]

@StrikaAmaru

Well Strika, lots of people are afraid of, or have difficulty with ANY math at all I guess. I blame it on their having had very boring maths instructors in their youth. Sad thing too, is that many people in BIOLOGY have "math fear" too. It's a terrible shame because math explains so beautifully many of the fundamental processes of the subject.

Thank you, and my congratulations to you for sticking out and viewing the entire series

[maxgunn555]

@HowieInTheUK would you say that individualism which has led to capitalism in society i believe is inherently from evolution which likes to have variation so that 'it' surives? i say it in referring to evolution/life itself as we know that life started as just one reproducing tiny rna molecule (or some molecule) and has eventually mutated which brings survival benefits.

[HowieInTheUK]

@max

Yes.. I would say that capitalism is an economic structure which has evolved because it offers the benefit of encouraging all individuals to work harder because they will directly receive the benefits, and this matches the innate evolved strategy of the "selfish gene" as Dawkins puts it. But society needs certain payoffs that cooperation affords, so evolution ends up with what game theory calls a "mixed strategy" .... a bit of both. Still, it is SELF INTEREST that drives everything

[maxgunn555]

@HowieInTheUK i agree that self interest drives everything however i think there are those that unaware of their own self interests and others which aren't. like some people pretend they dont really have feelings even if they may be affected by them they ignore on the surface. capitalism grants power and power does corrupt which makes me think it is bad and might not last as economic structure in the future. it's not an utopian society. oh and great video series here.

[HowieInTheUK]

@max

Even if we aren't aware of the strategies built into us by our genes it doesn't stop them influencing us. The most obvious example is our sex drive. Emotions are reflections of our built in "natures". It feels good to help out a stranger whose having some difficulty, we don't need to know that genetically/mathematically its Indirect Reciprocity at work. Social organisation is VERY complex, so we musnt oversimplyify. And..even communist regimes like China harness capitalism to optimise!

[HowieInTheUK]

So I would say Max, it is excellent to try to imagine some Ideal in how some future society might be organised or might evolve... but unless we can reengineer the nature of human beings (not a pleasant thought), we must work with those innate strategies that evolution has put in us.

[DrRandale]

Wow! Cool!

An old Problem Philosophers and Theologians have fought about:

Can we be good without the big cop in the sky?

Yes we can! And it pays for itself!

Darwinian Evolution gives better reasons for being moral.

Great Video!

[kamikazee100]

Awesome man. Great video. Are a lecturer by profession? Am sure you can explain quantum theory to Neil Bohr better than most.

[scienceminded]

Man. This is awesome, this was very enlightening. Five stars!