Examing the Prisoner's Dilemma and whether Natural Selection Favors Selfish Behavior

Podcast via http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/radiolab/radiolab121410c.mp3

Description

"In our episode The Good Show, we wrestle with the question of whether natural selection inherently favors selfish behavior. Is the process of evolutionary competion cruel, or does it sometimes pay to be nice?

One way to approach this question is to consider a scenario known as the prisoner's dilemma--a problem in game theory that illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of cooperation. In the final section of The Good Show, Jad and Robert take a stab at the prisoner's dilemma, and ask whether there are circumstances in which even selfish people are inclined to work together." (http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/dec/14/prisoners-dilemma/)

"In the early 60s, Robert Axelrod was a math major messing around with refrigerator-sized computers. Then a dramatic global crisis made him wonder about the space between a rock and a hard place, and whether being good may be a good strategy. With help from Andrew Zolli and Steve Strogatz, we tackle the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic thought experiment, and learn about a simple strategy to navigate the waters of cooperation and betrayal. Then Axelrod, along with Stanley Weintraub, takes us back to the trenches of World War I, to the winter of 1914, and an unlikely Christmas party along the Western Front." (http://www.radiolab.org/2010/dec/14/one-good-deed-deserves-another/)