Robert Karl Stonjek wrote:
> John Maynard Smith dies
> Evolutionary biologist applied game theory to evolution, defended
> neo-Darwinism
> By Catherine Brahic
> 
> One of the most renowned and influential evolutionary biologists of his
> generation, John Maynard Smith, died of lung cancer on April 19, at the age
> of 84.
> 
> Maynard Smith was probably most widely known for applying game theory to
> evolutionary biology. Originally developed in 1944 by John von Neumann and
> Oskar Morgentern, game theory is a mathematical model used by economists to
> study the outcomes of interactions between "collaborators"
and "enemies" in
> situations in which neither can entirely predict the actions of the other,
> but can adapt their behavior according to what they see the other doing.
> 
> Maynard Smith applied game theory to interactions between competing
> individuals of the same species that use different stratagems for survival.
> 
> Imagine combat in which each individual must decide whether or not to
> escalate the fight without knowing his opponent's decision. Maynard Smith
> showed, with George Price, that the interests of both combatants are best
> served if both decide not to escalate the fight.
> 

I heard somewhere that Smith actually employed Nash equilibria formulations.
You know, the guy the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' was based on.  If I'm wrong
about this, I would certainly like to know it, because I've repeated it
to a number of people.  It makes for a hell of an interesting story and
brings ev science much closer to home for lots of folks.
Comments anyone?

PR
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