Axelrod’s tournament
Build a population of strategies, then make them play generation after generation. Add errors to see what changes.
The experiment starts as soon as the page has loaded (JavaScript is required).
What just happened (read it after the experiment)
In each generation, the strategies that earn the least die out, and the best ones multiply. Cheaters thrive at first at the expense of the naive… then collapse when there are none left.
That’s what Robert Axelrod showed in 1980: tit for tat, simple, forgiving and quick to react, almost always ends up on top. When errors creep in, a version that forgives now and then does even better.
Nicky Case turned it into a famous game, The Evolution of Trust.
More experiments
Sources
- Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, 1984.