Nifty excerpt in the Technology Review on altruism in social networks. The excerpt:
for decades. From the point of view of survival of the fittest, the
unselfish concern for the welfare of others seems inexplicable. Surely
any organism should always act selfishly if it were truly intent on
saving its own bacon.
One explanation is that altruistic acts,
although seemingly unselfish, actually benefit those who perform them
but in indirect ways. The idea is that unselfish acts are repeated. So
those who have been helped go on to help other individuals, ensuring
that this behaviour spreads through a group, a phenomenon known as
upstream reciprocity.
Eventually, the individual that
triggered the altruistic behaviour will be on the receiving end of
least one unselfish act, ensuring that, at the very least, he or she
doesn't lose out. In this way, unselfish individuals actually benefit
from their altruism."
Read the Technology Review summary here.
Here's the full paper (26pp.).
Neato.
Chris,
Fascinating stuff. The diagrams (A-E) reminded me of those I’d seen in a great little book, “Harmonograph, A Visual Guide to the Mathematics of Music”, by Anthony Ashton. Imagine if the modelling associated with the behavior of altruism could also have correlaries in music. Fractals, and Six Degrees of Separation, anyone?
ooh. nice. and then from there to Godel, Escher, Bach. i like!
Reminds me of a Telugu (a language in India) Movie where the main protagonist helps people & in return for the favor asks them to help 3 more people & ask them do the same. His life is saved by one such beneficiary from the clutches of the villains & the whole state is united behind him.
We have had such sayings as “as you sow so shall you reap” & “love thy neighbour” and then you have the Wiccan Three Fold Law that states that what you set out comes back to you 3 fold.
And now a new term called “Upstream Reciprocity in Heterogeneous Networks”. 😉
—
Regards,
Prem
http://twitter.com/prem_k
The movie Pay it Forward followed a similar idea, too.