[p2p-research] Snowdrift Game vs Prisoner's Dilemma

[marc fawzi]

Excerpted from another email

"The term "snowdrift game" is a model in evolutionary game theory that
explains how cooperation is evolutionarily advantageous (contrary to the
classical interpretation of the survivalist model) but only in meshes
(according to the latest work done in this field) while it fails  in
hierarchies (i.e. leads to the extinction of those who provide unpaid
cooperation) ... It turns out the other model called the Prisoner's Dilemma
is optimal in hierarchies but it is a classical survivalist model."

I want to put the "snowdrift game + mesh WORKS_BETTER_THAN prisoner's
dilemma + hierarchy" game theory meme out there, and my belief is that
"renewable hierarchies" (which i had described as being similar to, e.g. US
Congress, EU Parliament, etc) operate more like a mesh from a game
theoretical perspective because they could theoretically lead to well-mixed
population in the production organization (as workers are replaced
frequently) but now I realize that in order to get a well-mixed population
the hierarchy has to be as flat as possible from the management and
organizational views (without losing coordination) to minimize hierarchical
interactions and maximize mesh interaction and the renewal of workers in the
production hierarchy has to happen as frequently as possible... (I realized
this requires a graphical simulation to show clearly.)

I can supply more references and explanations if anyone is interested.

Marc
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