This is a master piece about how to play the iterated prisoner dilemma and the evolution of cooperation. The amazing thing is that it was written 20 years ago and it is not out of date. Otherwise, it is an amazing presentation of the topic, mainly because of its simplicity and clearness!
Chapter 1 presents the main point of the book: "How cooperation emerges in a world of egoists without central authority". This chapter also introduces the main representation of the problem (based on the prisoners dilemma), several examples of cooperation, the main arguments for cooperation (such as the fact that the prisoner dilemma is not a zero sum game, altruism, the size of the discount factor etc) and the first proposition "if the discount factor is high, there is no best strategy".
Chapter 2 describes the computer tournament where Tit for Tat is the winner (in almost all situations). I mean the author promoted a tournament for the study of the strategies that can be used to play the iterated prisoner dilemma. Besides the main conclusions of this chapter, it is also interesting because of its historical appealing. Maybe this is one of the first important applications of computer science in Economics.
Chapter 3 is one of the most lucid introductions to evolutionary game theory. Although today we may find very good books about this topic (such as Game theory evolving - Gints, Evolutionary game theory - Weibull, Evolutionary Games and Population Dynamics - Hofbauer and Sigmund), the main ideas are presented in just few pages with almost no math (this is good for some guys). Furthermore, the author uses evolutionary game theory to analyze the stability of Tit for tat, other nice strategies and the strategy the defects in all rounds.
Chapter 4 the book presents the classical example of cooperation that arose in World war I.
Chapter 5 (previously published in American political science review) deals with the evolution of cooperation in biological systems applying the main ideas discussed in previous chapters.
Chapter 6 is about how to deal with prisoners dilemmas (in real life?!). The author provides a list of advices and justifies why Tit for Tat works. For instance, it is a "nice" strategy. I mean "Be nice". But if one is not nice with you, do not be nice either.
Chapter 7 is about how to promote cooperation. What factors in the game are necessary in order to promote cooperation. For instance, the continuous interaction between the participants is fundamental.
Chapter 8 discusses how cooperation is affected by some important issues such as the fact that people are divided in groups of similar characteristics (such as race, age etc), reputation etc.
Chapter 9 is like a summary of some ideas of the book.
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Top reviews from other countries
Michael Schilling
One of the most important books ever written
Reviewed in Germany on January 20, 2022Cliente de Amazon
Necesario para entender las relaciones humanas.
Reviewed in Mexico on July 15, 2020