Partner Choice and Cooperation in Networks


Book Description

In this book, a social dilemma with partner selection is introduced and studied with the methods of formal game theory, experimental economics and computer simulations. It allows exploration of simultaneous dynamics of the network structure and cooperative behavior on this structure. The results of this study show that partner choice strongly facilitates cooperation and leads to networks where free-riders are likely to be excluded.




Transactions on Computational Science XXVIII


Book Description

The LNCS journal Transactions on Computational Science reflects recent developments in the field of Computational Science, conceiving the field not as a mere ancillary science but rather as an innovative approach supporting many other scientific disciplines. The journal focuses on original high-quality research in the realm of computational science in parallel and distributed environments, encompassing the facilitating theoretical foundations and the applications of large-scale computations and massive data processing. It addresses researchers and practitioners in areas ranging from aerospace to biochemistry, from electronics to geosciences, from mathematics to software architecture, presenting verifiable computational methods, findings, and solutions, and enabling industrial users to apply techniques of leading-edge, large-scale, high performance computational methods. This, the 28th issue of the Transactions on Computational Science journal, is comprised of extended versions of selected papers from the International Conference on Cyberworlds, CyberWorlds 2015, held in Gotland, Sweden, in October 2015. The first paper is a position paper, presenting open problems and identifying future directions within the domain. The remaining 8 papers focus on a range of topics, including virtual reality, games, haptic modeling, cybersecurity, brain wave analysis, shape parameterization, projects, and data mining.




Close Engagements with Artificial Companions


Book Description

What will it be like to admit Artificial Companions into our society? How will they change our relations with each other? How important will they be in the emotional and practical lives of their owners since we know that people became emotionally dependent even on simple devices like the Tamagotchi? How much social life might they have in contacting each other? The contributors to this book discuss the possibility and desirability of some form of long-term computer Companions now being a certainty in the coming years. It is a good moment to consider, from a set of wide interdisciplinary perspectives, both how we shall construct them technically as well as their personal philosophical and social consequences. By Companions we mean conversationalists or confidants not robots but rather computer software agents whose function will be to get to know their owners over a long period. Those may well be elderly or lonely, and the contributions in the book focus not only on assistance via the internet (contacts, travel, doctors etc.) but also on providing company and Companionship, by offering aspects of real personalization."




Principles of Animal Behavior, 4th Edition


Book Description

Since the last edition of this definitive textbook was published in 2013, much has happened in the field of animal behavior. In this fourth edition, Lee Alan Dugatkin draws on cutting-edge new work not only to update and expand on the studies presented, but also to reinforce the previous editions’ focus on ultimate and proximate causation, as well as the book’s unique emphasis on natural selection, learning, and cultural transmission. The result is a state-of-the-art textbook on animal behavior that explains underlying concepts in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and accessible to students. Each chapter in the book provides a sound theoretical and conceptual basis upon which the empirical studies rest. A completely new feature in this edition are the Cognitive Connection boxes in Chapters 2–17, designed to dig deep into the importance of the cognitive underpinnings to many types of behaviors. Each box focuses on a specific issue related to cognition and the particular topic covered in that chapter. As Principles of Animal Behavior makes clear, the tapestry of animal behavior is created from weaving all of these components into a beautiful whole. With Dugatkin’s exquisitely illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date fourth edition, we are able to admire that beauty anew.




Fallout


Book Description

The year was 1997 and Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game had just been released by Interplay. This book looks back at the entire Fallout saga, tells the story of the series' birth, retraces its history and deciphers its mechanics. The perfect book to discover and understand the origins of Fallout, with the saga's genesis and the decryption of each of his episodes ! EXTRACT "The intro music and the end credits were the final main components of this hybrid post-apocalyptic/50s ambiance. Initially, Brian Fargo wanted to signal Fallout’s inspiration with Warriors of the Wasteland, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but when he heard The Ink Spots, he changed his mind and loved the result. The first choice was I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire by this group of crooners from the 1930s/40s, but unfortunately the high cost made it impossible to acquire the rights. But while browsing an extensive list of tracks from the era, the team found that Maybe, by the same group, had almost the same sound-with the added bonus of being cheap! The lyrics are about a break-up, from the point of view of the person being left behind: "Maybe you’ll think of me when you are all alone/ Then maybe you’ll ask me to come back again". Leonard Boyarsky notes that, "It worked with the intro [and the ending]", referring to the ending with the betrayal and lonely exile of Fallout’s hero. "It felt like it was this genius plan we had [...] but it was only later that we decided to kick [the player] out of the Vault. I feel like this is a metaphor for the whole game: it looks like we had a better picture in mind than we did, it just came out of the things we were doing"."




The Ladies' Companion


Book Description




Game Theory for Applied Economists


Book Description

An introduction to one of the most powerful tools in modern economics Game Theory for Applied Economists introduces one of the most powerful tools of modern economics to a wide audience: those who will later construct or consume game-theoretic models. Robert Gibbons addresses scholars in applied fields within economics who want a serious and thorough discussion of game theory but who may have found other works too abstract. Gibbons emphasizes the economic applications of the theory at least as much as the pure theory itself; formal arguments about abstract games play a minor role. The applications illustrate the process of model building—of translating an informal description of a multi-person decision situation into a formal game-theoretic problem to be analyzed. Also, the variety of applications shows that similar issues arise in different areas of economics, and that the same game-theoretic tools can be applied in each setting. In order to emphasize the broad potential scope of the theory, conventional applications from industrial organization have been largely replaced by applications from labor, macro, and other applied fields in economics. The book covers four classes of games, and four corresponding notions of equilibrium: static games of complete information and Nash equilibrium, dynamic games of complete information and subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium, static games of incomplete information and Bayesian Nash equilibrium, and dynamic games of incomplete information and perfect Bayesian equilibrium.







Companions in Hope


Book Description

Written as a partial antidote to the isolation and potential alienation of people living in a world that is moving too fast, this book adapts insights gleaned from the pastoral counseling profession to help everyday people hone and heighten gifts that can help them reach out to others in a more Christian and transformational form of caring. The authors offer concrete means to help readers enhance their talents in the areas of listening, being supportive, problem solving, dealing with crises and knowing when and how to refer in order to equip them as they seek to offer care to others in daily encounters.




Moral Psychology, Volume 4


Book Description

Leading philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists address issues of moral responsibility and free will, drawing on new findings from empirical science. Traditional philosophers approached the issues of free will and moral responsibility through conceptual analysis that seldom incorporated findings from empirical science. In recent decades, however, striking developments in psychology and neuroscience have captured the attention of many moral philosophers. This volume of Moral Psychology offers essays, commentaries, and replies by leading philosophers and scientists who explain and use empirical findings from psychology and neuroscience to illuminate old and new problems regarding free will and moral responsibility. The contributors—who include such prominent scholars as Patricia Churchland, Daniel Dennett, and Michael Gazzaniga—consider issues raised by determinism, compatibilism, and libertarianism; epiphenomenalism, bypassing, and naturalism; naturalism; and rationality and situationism. These writings show that although science does not settle the issues of free will and moral responsibility, it has enlivened the field by asking novel, profound, and important questions. Contributors Roy F. Baumeister, Tim Bayne, Gunnar Björnsson, C. Daryl Cameron, Hanah A. Chapman, William A. Cunningham, Patricia S. Churchland, Christopher G. Coutlee, Daniel C. Dennett, Ellen E. Furlong, Michael S. Gazzaniga, Patrick Haggard, Brian Hare, Lasana T. Harris, John-Dylan Haynes, Richard Holton, Scott A. Huettel, Robert Kane, Victoria K. Lee, Neil Levy, Alfred R. Mele, Christian Miller, Erman Misirlisoy, P. Read Montague, Thomas Nadelhoffer, Eddy Nahmias, William T. Newsome, B. Keith Payne, Derk Pereboom, Adina L. Roskies, Laurie R. Santos, Timothy Schroeder, Michael N. Shadlen, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Chandra Sripada, Christopher L. Suhler, Manuel Vargas, Gideon Yaffe