Cognitive Thrift 50 – Individual
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Cognitive Thrift
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/12/15
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Game theory can be applied to the individual. Game theory can be applied to the species. We have talked more about game theory as applied to the species within the context of deep evolutionary time as well. How does game theory apply to an individual?
Rick Rosner: Well, in a couple of different ways, one is different life strategies among individuals, where due to our evolutionary history, or due to having evolved, most of animals want to reproduce, but in many species it’s only the fittest animals according to some criteria that get to reproduce. Generally, greater fitness leads to greater reproductive fitness.
I guess particularly among males, but I’m not sure.
Jacobsen: What does fitness in evolution mean to you?
Rosner: It is being well-adapted to survival in the world. The part of the world that the organism finds itself in. So, it looks like jocks versus nerds situation, where the jocks, the fittest individuals, monopolize reproduction and the nerds are shut out.
It is not just reproduction. It is in competition for anything within or among members of a species.
The fitter individuals may monopolize resources. And the less fit individuals can’t compete for resources straight-on in many instances.
So, the less fit individuals can either be content with a lower quality of life or they can die because they do not have access to as many resources and more fit individuals or they can try lower probability strategies with potential for a high payoff.
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