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« on: December 05, 2006, 07:48:27 PM »
If you play one round of prisoners dilema the best option is to cheat. But if you play many rounds and you start cheating the other person retaliates by cheating and you both lose. A few years back someone organised a competition for people to submit programs to play prisoners dilema, the one that did the best was tit for tat, that basically followed what the previous programs actions. In nature its not just about one altruistic action between 2 individuals, its about the interaction of many. If you cheat someone, other people will see that and act acordingly. There were some examples in the selfish gene, I think of bats sharing food to others that hadn't manage to catch anything that night and that they would remember bats that hadn't shared, and not give them food when they were going hungry. And I think there was also another one about birds and ticks. I guess its kind of regulation by the group as a whole.