Rotating the Necker cube: A bioeconomic approach to cooperation and the causal role of synergy in evolution

Corning, Peter A.

doi:10.1007/s10818-012-9142-4

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Here we will offer what is, in essence, an economic theory of complexity called the "synergism hypothesis" (Corning, 1983(Corning, , 2003(Corning, , 2005(Corning, , 2007a(Corning, , 2013, a theory that is compatible with various selection paradigms, including especially multi-level selection theory. But before we unpack this theory, it is important first to clarify the concept of natural selection, for it is often seriously misunderstood.…”

Section: What Is Natural Selection?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Synergistic selection”: A Darwinian frame for the evolution of complexity

Corning¹,

Szathmáry

2015

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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Section: What Is Natural Selection?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Synergistic selection”: A Darwinian frame for the evolution of complexity

Corning¹,

Szathmáry

2015

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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“…An important conclusion from empirical studies in economics, that try to assess the effect of social synergy or economic benefits that derive from social life, is that synergy is probably the most important driver in the evolution of cooperation, and that assortation or genetic relatedness are neither necessary nor sufficient for the emergence of cooperative phenomena (see also Corning 2013 ). The same conclusion is reached when exploring the dynamics of cooperation in the repeated prisoners dilemma game .…”

Section: Benefits Of An Extended Inclusive Fitness Theory?mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Very recently, Corning (2013) presented a similar bioconomic approach to cooperation giving a preponderant role to synergy in evolution. His approach differs somewhat to the one developed here, as it focuses on multi-level and group selection (Corning 2013) and to 'synergistic selection' in the context of the emergence of complexity (Corning & Szathmáry 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Synergy Drives the Evolutionary Dynamics in Biology and Economics

Jaffé

2016

First Complex Systems Digital Campus World E-Conference 2015

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W.D. Hamilton's Inclusive Fitness Theory explains the conditions that favor the emergence and maintenance of social cooperation. Today we know that these include direct and indirect benefits an agent obtains by its actions, and through interactions with kin and with genetically unrelated individuals. That is, in addition to kin-selection, assortation or homophily, and social synergies drive the evolution of cooperation. An Extended Inclusive Fitness Theory (EIFT) synthesizes the natural selection forces acting on biological evolution and on human economic interactions by assuming that natural selection driven by inclusive fitness produces agents with utility functions ( that exploit assortation and synergistic opportunities, so that This means that any utility functions (must include in its calculations the benefits accrued to the agents directly (, through interactions with others () and through synergies triggered by its behavior (. This formulation allows to estimate sustainable cost/benefit threshold ratios of cooperation among organisms and/or economic agents, using existent analytical tools, illuminating our understanding of the dynamic nature of society, the evolution of cooperation among kin and non-kin, inter-specific cooperation, co-evolution, symbioses, division of labor and social synergies. EIFT helps to promote an interdisciplinary cross fertilization of the understanding of synergy by, for example, allowing to describe the role for division of labor in the emergence of social synergies, providing an integrated framework for the study of both, biological evolution of social behavior and economic market dynamics.

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“…They are not hard-wired and fixed in the way we tend to think of neural circuits; they are context-dependent and are best understood-like the emergence of life itself [9] in terms of coupled dynamical systems (see also [54]). A strong case can be made that coordinative structures-also known as functional synergies [55] or synergies of meaningful movement [45] --are units of selection in evolution [56,57] and intentional change [58,59]. The ability of complex systems to softly assemble themselves into functional synergies or coordinative structures in a context-sensitive fashion offers significant selectional advantages.…”

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On the Self-Organizing Origins of Agency

Kelso¹

2016

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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The question of agency and directedness in living systems has puzzled philosophers and scientists for centuries. What principles and mechanisms underlie the emergence of agency? Analysis and dynamical modeling of experiments on human infants suggest that the birth of agency is due to a eureka-like, pattern forming phase transition in which the infant suddenly realizes it can make things happen in the world. The main mechanism involves positive feedback: when the baby's initially spontaneous movements cause the world to change, their perceived consequences have a sudden and sustained amplifying effect on the baby's further actions. The baby discovers itself as a causal agent. Some implications of this theory are discussed. KeywordsCoordination Dynamics; collective variables; phase transition; positive feedback; emergence; agent; consciousness; synchrony; metastability What is this 'I'?We humans tend to believe that we are agents, masters and mistresses of our fate, that our deeds and desires are our destiny. Yet despite a sizeable literature on 'the sense of agency' and its behavioral and neuroimaging correlates (see [1,2] for recent reviews) the scientific basis of causal agency and how we come to experience ourselves as agents is lacking. Agency means action towards an end. When it comes to the behavior of living things, our inability to understand end-directedness forces us to posit (often implicitly) an intelligent agent residing somewhere inside the system that is responsible for the end-directed behavior we observe. The self as casual agent remains a ghost in the machine awaiting exorcism, perhaps, by new insights from the brain and cognitive sciences.Charles Darwin, in On the Origin of Species touched only briefly on the topic of agency though he noted how 'admirably adapted' was the woodpecker to catch insects under the Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Franklin Fearing [5] noted that "Even before man speculated about the nature and source of his own experiences, he was probably curious about the agencies by which animal motion was effected" (p.1). Life and motion, Fearing remarks, are almost synonymous terms. HHS Public AccessIn his famous book, "What is life?" Erwin Schrödinger [6] one of the chief architects of quantum mechanics and the author of the famous equation that bears his name, proposed an "order from order" principle as the physical basis of life. Schrödinger speculated that this new kind of order took the form of an aperiodic crystal, later exposed as the beautiful double helical structure of the DNA molecule [7]. Not much mor...

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Rotating the Necker cube: A bioeconomic approach to cooperation and the causal role of synergy in evolution

Cited by 15 publications

References 110 publications

“Synergistic selection”: A Darwinian frame for the evolution of complexity

“Synergistic selection”: A Darwinian frame for the evolution of complexity

Synergy Drives the Evolutionary Dynamics in Biology and Economics

On the Self-Organizing Origins of Agency

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