19 research outputs found
Cooperation in the snowdrift game on directed small-world networks under self-questioning and noisy conditions
Cooperation in the evolutionary snowdrift game with a self-questioning
updating mechanism is studied on annealed and quenched small-world networks
with directed couplings. Around the payoff parameter value , we find a
size-invariant symmetrical cooperation effect. While generally suppressing
cooperation for payoffs, rewired networks facilitated cooperative
behavior for . Fair amounts of noise were found to break the observed
symmetry and further weaken cooperation at relatively large values of .
However, in the absence of noise, the self-questioning mechanism recovers
symmetrical behavior and elevates altruism even under large-reward conditions.
Our results suggest that an updating mechanism of this type is necessary to
stabilize cooperation in a spatially structured environment which is otherwise
detrimental to cooperative behavior, especially at high cost-to-benefit ratios.
Additionally, we employ component and local stability analyses to better
understand the nature of the manifested dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
A generalized public goods game with coupling of individual ability and project benefit
Facing a heavy task, any single person can only make a limited contribution
and team cooperation is needed. As one enjoys the benefit of the public goods,
the potential benefits of the project are not always maximized and may be
partly wasted. By incorporating individual ability and project benefit into the
original public goods game, we study the coupling effect of the four
parameters, the upper limit of individual contribution, the upper limit of
individual benefit, the needed project cost and the upper limit of project
benefit on the evolution of cooperation. Coevolving with the individual-level
group size preferences, an increase in the upper limit of individual benefit
promotes cooperation while an increase in the upper limit of individual
contribution inhibits cooperation. The coupling of the upper limit of
individual contribution and the needed project cost determines the critical
point of the upper limit of project benefit, where the equilibrium frequency of
cooperators reaches its highest level. Above the critical point, an increase in
the upper limit of project benefit inhibits cooperation. The evolution of
cooperation is closely related to the preferred group-size distribution. A
functional relation between the frequency of cooperators and the dominant group
size is found
A Biased Review of Sociophysics
Various aspects of recent sociophysics research are shortly reviewed:
Schelling model as an example for lack of interdisciplinary cooperation,
opinion dynamics, combat, and citation statistics as an example for strong
interdisciplinarity.Comment: 16 pages for J. Stat. Phys. including 2 figures and numerous
reference
Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud
Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp
Children's Third-Party Punishment Behaviour: The Roles of Deterrent Motives, Affective States and Moral Domains
Children engage in third-party punishment (3PP) from a young age in response to
harm and fairness violations. However, several areas about children’s 3PP are still
un-investigated: their motivations for engaging in 3PP; the emotional consequences of
enacting 3PP; and the effect of moral domains on 3PP.
In order to explore these topics, I developed two computerised paradigms: the
MegaAttack game and the Minecraft Justice System. The former was used with 5- to
11-year-olds in the UK (Experiments 1-2) and Colombia (Experiment 3); the latter with
British, Colombian and Italian 7- to 11-year-olds (Experiment 4). In both paradigms, as
players violated different types of moral norms, children were asked to judge their behaviour
and offered the opportunity to punish them. Additionally, in the Minecraft paradigm children
could also compensate the victims.
The type of transgression children watched did not fully predict their choice of 3PP
type in terms of moral domains (Experiments 1-2), but significantly affected their severity
and endorsement of 3PP (Experiment 4).
Children did not appear motivated by reputational concerns, as their 3PP severity was
not influenced by an audience, operationalised as cues of observation (Experiment 2) or
accountability (Experiment 3).
Children’s enjoyment of 3PP was generally low, although there were differences
across countries (Experiments 2-3).
In Experiment 4 children enjoyed compensating more than punishing. When asked
whether they endorsed deterrence or retribution as their 3PP motive, children overwhelmingly chose deterrence, irrespective of their country, age and framing
manipulation received. Reported deterrent motives, and lack of 3PP enjoyment or preference for
compensation, together suggest that children, differently from adults, are not motivated by
the retributive desire to see wrongdoers suffer.
Results have implications for theoretical accounts of the cognitive and affective
processes involved in 3PP, methodological implications for future research avenues and,
potentially, practical implications for the development of intervention studies
A complex systems approach to education in Switzerland
The insights gained from the study of complex systems in biological, social, and engineered systems enables us not only to observe and understand, but also to actively design systems which will be capable of successfully coping with complex and dynamically changing situations. The methods and mindset required for this approach have been applied to educational systems with their diverse levels of scale and complexity. Based on the general case made by Yaneer Bar-Yam, this paper applies the complex systems approach to the educational system in Switzerland. It confirms that the complex systems approach is valid. Indeed, many recommendations made for the general case have already been implemented in the Swiss education system. To address existing problems and difficulties, further steps are recommended. This paper contributes to the further establishment complex systems approach by shedding light on an area which concerns us all, which is a frequent topic of discussion and dispute among politicians and the public, where billions of dollars have been spent without achieving the desired results, and where it is difficult to directly derive consequences from actions taken. The analysis of the education system's different levels, their complexity and scale will clarify how such a dynamic system should be approached, and how it can be guided towards the desired performance
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Social inequality before farming? Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of social organization in prehistoric and ethnographic hunter-gatherer-fisher societies
Archaeological investigations over the past 50 years have challenged the importance of domestication and food production in the emergence of institutionalized social inequality. Social inequality in the prehistoric human past developed through multiple historical processes that operate on a number of different scales of variability (e.g. social, economic, demographic, and environmental). However, in the theoretical and linguistic landscape of social inequality, there is no clear definition of what social inequality is. The lifeways of hunter-gathererfisher societies open a crucial intellectual space and challenge to find meaningful ways of using archaeological and ethnographic data to understand what social inequality exactly is with regard to variously negotiated or enforced cultural norms or ethoses of individual autonomy. This interdisciplinary edited volume gathers together researchers working in the fields of prehistoric archaeology and cultural and evolutionary anthropology. Spanning terminal Pleistocene to Holocene archaeological and ethnographic contexts from across the globe, the nineteen chapters in this volume cover a variety of topics organized around three major themes, which structure the book: 1) social inequality and egalitarianism in extant hunter-gatherer societies; 2) social inequality in Upper Palaeolithic Europe (c. 45,000–11,500 years ago); 3) social inequality in prehistoric Holocene hunter-gatherer-fisher societies globally. Most chapters in this volume provide empirical content with considerations of subsistence ecology, demography, mobility, social networks, technology, children’s enculturation, ritual practice, rock art, dogs, warfare, lethal weaponry, and mortuary behaviour. In addition to providing new data from multiple contexts through space and time, and exploring social diversity and evolution from novel perspectives, the collection of essays in this volume will have a considerable impact on how archaeologists define and theorize pathways both towards and away from inequality within diverse social contexts
The Spectral Arctic
Visitors to the Arctic enter places that have been traditionally imagined as otherworldly. This strangeness fascinated audiences in nineteenth-century Britain when the idea of the heroic explorer voyaging through unmapped zones reached its zenith. The Spectral Arctic re-thinks our understanding of Arctic exploration by paying attention to the importance of dreams and ghosts in the quest for the Northwest Passage. The narratives of Arctic exploration that we are all familiar with today are just the tip of the iceberg: they disguise a great mass of mysterious and dimly lit stories beneath the surface. In contrast to oft-told tales of heroism and disaster, this book reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who travelled to the Arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives, and fictional texts, these spectral stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the far North in the past. This revisionist historical account allows us to make sense of current cultural and political concerns in the Canadian Arctic about the location of Franklin’s ships