This follows on from our discussion of the Prisoner's Dilemma. When does it pay to cooperate and when does it pay to defect. Will mutual cooperation ever occur when it is in the collective interest to do so but individually each person has the incentive to defect?
Richard Dawkins wrote a book published in 1976 called The Selfish Gene arguing that natural selection and evolution means that self-interested genes dominate and lead to the extinction of more altruistic genes.
In 1984 Robert Axelrod produced a book called The Evolution of Cooperation. In it he argued that the possibility of continued interaction meant that mutual cooperation was possible as one must consider the shadow of the future, i.e. a defection now will lead to a punishment defection from the other player in future periods. In the iterated prisoner's dilemma both player would be better if they cooperated now and into the future.
In the second edition of The Selfish Gene published in 1989 Dawkins included a chapter based on Axelrod's work. He had also made a TV documentary of the material broadcast in 1987. Here is the 46 minute documentary. It's not as flash as Jasper Carrot!
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