Emergence of cooperation with self-organized criticality

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized Bak-Sneppen model that explains how cooperation can naturally emerge in populations through self-organized criticality, even under conditions unfavorable to cooperation.

Contribution

It presents a novel model combining Bak-Sneppen dynamics with prisoner's dilemma interactions to explain the simultaneous emergence of cooperation and self-organized criticality.

Findings

Cooperation emerges even when random populations decline in cooperators.

Self-organized criticality underpins the emergence of cooperation.

The model demonstrates cooperation's robustness in complex adaptive systems.

Abstract

Cooperation and self-organized criticality are two main keywords in current studies of evolution. We propose a generalized Bak-Sneppen model and provide a natural mechanism which accounts for both phenomena simultaneously. We use the prisoner's dilemma games to mimic the interactions among the members of the population. Each member is identified by its cooperation probability, and its fitness is given by the payoffs from neighbors. The least fit member with the minimum payoff is replaced by a new member with a random cooperation probability. When the neighbors of the least fit member are also replaced with a non-zero probability, a strong cooperation emerges. The Bak-Sneppen process builds a self-organized structure so that the cooperation can emerge even in the parameter region where a uniform or random population decreases the number of cooperators. The emergence of cooperation is due to the same dynamical correlation which leads to self-organized criticality in replacement activities.