Games of Life
Explorations in Ecology, Evolution, and Behaviour
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:9th Sep '93
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Life is often a matter of gambles, pay-offs, and trade-offs, just like a game. This book takes us on a tour through the games and computer simulations that are helping us to understand the ecology, evolution, and behaviour of real life - from cat and mouse to cellular automata, from the battle of the sexes to artificial life, from poker to the prisoner's dilemma. No other book explains so well why scientific observations and insights can be structured as the rules of a survival game, and what happens when they are assembled on a computer or in the mind and allowed to run. With a delightful personal style, the author specifically looks at genetics, population ecology, evolution, and animal behaviour and discusses the often surprising outcomes when the name of the game is life.
'Karl Sigmund's Games of Life is a beautifully written and, considering its relative brevity, amazingly comprehensive survey of past and current thinking in "mathematical" evolution. Just as games (at least, the human variety) are supposed to be fun, so too is Games of Life - the witty section headings, the relaxed style and the clarity of the explanations make the book as enjoyable to read as a Marx Brothers film (to which there is a reference in the book) is to watch.' Times Higher Education Supplement
'I would place Sigmund's book somehwere between good and excellent ... The informal style of the book is brilliant ... the book is a success.' A. Kondrashov, Cornell University, TREE, vol. 9, no. 3, 1994
'an excellent introduction to what theoretical bioliogists get up to in trying to understand evolutionary and ecological ideas' Andrew Pomiankowski, University College, London, Nature, Vol. 370, 1994
ISBN: 9780198547839
Dimensions: 233mm x 155mm x 14mm
Weight: 396g
256 pages