Collective Behavior From Cells to Societies: Interdisciplinary Research Team Summaries (2015) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
IDR Team Summary 7: Evaluate the degree to which cooperation and conflict need to be balanced in order to facilitate the evolution, expansion, optimal performance, and maintenance of collective behaviors.
IDR Team Summary 7: Evaluate the degree to which cooperation and conflict need to be balanced in order to facilitate the evolution, expansion, optimal performance, and maintenance of collective behaviors.
Pages 73-84
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 73... ...
Indeed, in many of the major transitions, the individual subunit loses its ability to function and survive outside of the cooperative body. However, it is clear that conflict remains, indicating that its suppression is not absolute.
|
From page 74... ...
Indeed, phylogenetic studies of eusocial evolution in bees have demonstrated that multiple lineages switched from eusocial to solitary behavior, or from eusocial to parasitic lifestyles. Thus, there appears be a great deal of flexibility, including reversibility, along the path from solitary to collective behaviors.
|
From page 75... ...
Kinship is thought to be a major driver of social evolution, but some of the major transitions (molecules to cells, prokaryotes to eukaryotes) were likely not facilitated by kinship.
|
From page 76... ...
Collective behavior is defined as a spontaneous behavior that a large number of individuals within a group undertake that is different from the group's previous actions. The classic example of collective behavior is seen within a honeybee colony, in which evolution selected for individuals to work together in various castes, from the worker bees to the nurse bees to the queen bee, and form societies that are truly well-oiled machines.
|
From page 77... ...
There was a heavy focus on this point of no return. The team reasoned that the system may never be optimal, but a certain level of conflict and cooperation can help the system from breaking apart completely.
|
From page 78... ...
As a solution, the team thought it would be a good idea to expand upon Strassmann and Queller's plot by adding a third dimension, or a z axis, that represents fitness (Figure 2)
|
From page 79... ...
To address the problem, the group recommended models like the NK model (fitness landscape) , n-player game theory models, network models, and probabilistic models that would allow researchers to make predictions about various groups, including humans.
|
From page 80... ...
Our understanding of collective behavior and human cooperation can promote economic or other growth, be used to protect the environment, as well as support tenuous cooperation, like that of a ceasefire. We can also use points of no return to perturb cooperation in pests, pathogens, and disease, as well as prevent or stop war and restructure economic systems.
|
From page 81... ...
The cancer cell goes rogue at the expense of the whole, competing queens fight for dominance in some species of social bees, dissenting parties are found in social media groups among humans, and murderers abound in virtually all human communities. The question for the team, then -- to what extent cooperation and conflict affect the formation and stability of collective behaviors -- seemed especially imperative.
|
From page 82... ...
The next, and perhaps most vital, step for the team became to eke out reasonable definitions of "cooperation" and "conflict." An exercise of anonymous brainstorming recorded on yellow and pink and orange post-it notes quickly underscored the importance of the exercise. Initial thoughts on the meaning of cooperation ranged from "interacting individuals with shared interests," through belief of what "increases happiness." Other takes included "individuals working together for a specific outcome" and "parts working together for positive benefits for all or to lower free energy." After a spirited deliberation, the group settled on a working definition of cooperation as "interactions that increase utility function for the elements involved in the interactions." There was a caveat: utility is contextdependent.
|
From page 83... ...
In the interplay between cooperation and conflict, what factors about temporal collective behaviors can researchers measure at the times they form and dissolve, factors that can be captured through an equation? The team conjectured that groups form when the utility function for the collective is maximized, and can only be achieved when cooperation exceeds conflict.
|
From page 84... ...
Perhaps then science can have a positive effect on human conflicts, endangered species, epidemiology and diseases, and -- some members of the team insisted on adding -- the U.S. Congress.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.