Preface to special issue on cooperation in selfish systems

摘要

The problem of understanding the conditions under which cooperation or altruism can be sustained between interacting selfish entities is a fundamental issue in both biology and the social sciences.rnIn recent years, there has been an explosion of work utilising agent-based computer simulation to explore novel mechanisms for cooperation. This surge was probably kick-started by the famous "computer tournaments" and related work of Robert Axelrod (1984). Predating this, of course, there is a large body of mathematical game theoretic analysis following in the tradition established by von Neumann and Mor-genstern (1944). Historically, this latter approach has tended towards unrealistically strong assumptions concerning the rationality and knowledge of actors. More recently, refinements have addressed systems with slightly less strong assumptions.