Roger Highfield

Martin A. Nowak

Everyone is familiar with Darwin's revolutionary idea about the survival of the fittest, and most people agree that it works, but Darwin's famous theory has one major chink. If life is about survival of the fittest, then why would we risk our own life to jump into a river to save a stranger?Some people argue that issues such as charity, fairness, forgiveness and cooperation are evolutionary loose ends, side issues that are of little consequence. But as Harvard's celebrated evolutionary biologist Martin Nowak explains in this ground-breaking book, cooperation is central to the four-billion-year-old puzzle of life. In his first book for a wide audience, this hugely influential scientist explains his cutting-edge research into the mysteries of cooperation, from the rise of multicellular life to Good Samaritans. With wit and clarity, Martin Nowak and the bestselling science writer Roger Highfield make the case that cooperation, not competition, is the defining human trait. Supercooperators will expand our understanding of evolution and human behaviour, and provoke debate for years to come.

Evolution, Altruism and Huamn Behaviour Or why We Need Each Other to Succeed

Super Cooperators

Everyone is familiar with Darwin’s revolutionary idea about the survival of the fittest, and most people agree that it works, but Darwin’s famous theory has one major chink. If life is about survival of the fittest, then why would we risk our own life to jump into a river to save a stranger? Some people argue that issues such as charity, fairness, forgiveness and cooperation are evolutionary loose ends, side issues that are of little consequence. But as Harvard’s celebrated evolutionary biologist Martin Nowak explains in this ground-breaking book, cooperation is central to the four-billion-year-old puzzle of life. In Supercooperators Martin Nowak deftly unpacks the five basic laws of cooperation – Kin Selection, Direct Reciprocity, Indirect Reciprocity, Network Reciprocity and Group Selection – in order to explain some of the most fundamental mechanics beneath everyday life.

Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour Or why We Need Each Other to Succeed

Draws on the languages of biology and mathematics to outline the mathematical principles according to which life evolves in an intriguing study that makes a clear and compelling case for understanding every living system in terms of evolutionary dynamics.

Exploring the Equations of Life

Evolutionary Dynamics

At a time of unprecedented expansion in the life sciences, evolution is the one theory that transcends all of biology. Any observation of a living system must ultimately be interpreted in the context of its evolution. Evolutionary change is the consequence of mutation and natural selection, which are two concepts that can be described by mathematical equations. Evolutionary Dynamics is concerned with these equations of life. In this book, Martin A. Nowak draws on the languages of biology and mathematics to outline the mathematical principles according to which life evolves. His work introduces readers to the powerful yet simple laws that govern the evolution of living systems, no matter how complicated they might seem. Evolution has become a mathematical theory, Nowak suggests, and any idea of an evolutionary process or mechanism should be studied in the context of the mathematical equations of evolutionary dynamics. His book presents a range of analytical tools that can be used to this end: fitness landscapes, mutation matrices, genomic sequence space, random drift, quasispecies, replicators, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, games in finite and infinite populations, evolutionary graph theory, games on grids, evolutionary kaleidoscopes, fractals, and spatial chaos. Nowak then shows how evolutionary dynamics applies to critical real-world problems, including the progression of viral diseases such as AIDS, the virulence of infectious agents, the unpredictable mutations that lead to cancer, the evolution of altruism, and even the evolution of human language. His book makes a clear and compelling case for understanding every living system—and everything that arises as a consequence of living systems—in terms of evolutionary dynamics.

Im Spiel des Lebens treibt uns das Streben nach Erfolg an. Wir alle wollen Sieger sein. Selbst unsere Gene, so heißt es, seien egoistisch. Aber Konkurrenz erzählt nicht die ganze Geschichte der Biologie. Etwas Grundlegendes fehlt. Um zu überleben, betreiben die Geschöpfe jeder Spezies und auf jeder Stufe der Komplexität auch Kooperation. In der menschlichen Gesellschaft ist Kooperation sogar allgegenwärtig. Selbst einfachste Abläufe bestehen aus mehr Zusammenarbeit, als man meinen könnte. Dabei beschränkt sich Kooperation nicht darauf, auf ein gemeinsames Ziel hinzuarbeiten. Kooperation bedeutet darüber hinaus, dass Menschen, die potenziell Konkurrenten sind, stattdessen beschließen, einander zu helfen. „Kooperative Intelligenz“ entschlüsselt das Rätsel, wie es dazu kommt und warum auf lange Sicht Kooperation immer gewinnt. Es erweitert unser Verständnis von Evolution und Solidarität.

Das Erfolgsgeheimnis der Evolution

Kooperative Intelligenz

Martin Nowak, ein weltweit führender Experte im Bereich Evolution und Spieltheorie, erklärt in seinem fesselnden, zugänglichen Buch, warum Kooperation - und nicht Egoismus - der Schlüssel zum Spiel des Lebens ist. Die brillante Antwort auf Frank Schirrmachers Bestseller "Ego". Im Spiel des Lebens treibt uns das Streben nach Erfolg an. Wir alle wollen Sieger sein. Selbst unsere Gene, so heißt es, seien egoistisch. Aber Konkurrenz erzählt nicht die ganze Geschichte der Biologie. Etwas Grundlegendes fehlt. Um zu überleben, betreiben die Geschöpfe jeder Spezies und auf jeder Stufe der Komplexität auch Kooperation. In der menschlichen Gesellschaft ist Kooperation sogar allgegenwärtig. Selbst einfachste Abläufe bestehen aus mehr Zusammenarbeit, als man meinen könnte. Dabei beschränkt sich Kooperation nicht darauf, auf ein gemeinsames Ziel hinzuarbeiten. Kooperation bedeutet darüber hinaus, dass Menschen, die potenziell Konkurrenten sind, stattdessen beschließen, einander zu helfen. "Kooperative Intelligenz" entschlüsselt das Rätsel, wie es dazu kommt und warum auf lange Sicht Kooperation immer gewinnt. Es erweitert unser Verständnis von Evolution und Solidarität und hat das Zeug, Debatten auszulösen.

Evolution, Games, and God explores how cooperation and altruism, alongside mutation and natural selection, play a critical role in evolution, from microbes to human societies. Inheriting a tendency to cooperate and self-sacrifice on behalf of others may be as beneficial to a population’s survival as the self-preserving instincts of individuals.

Martin A. Nowak

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