ACCS Weekly Meeting

Place: Room 621, GP South
Time: Thursday 3rd November, 10:30 morning Tea. 11:00am seminar

Title: Evolutionary Game Theory with G-functions
Presenter: John Hawkins, ACCS

In this presentation I will provide a summary of the material covered in Tom
Vincent's Evolutionary Game theory workshop in Adelaide. Evolution is
described in game theoretic terms as an iterated game, with a continuous
strategy space, in which individuals inherit rather than choose strategies.
Payoff is dependent upon the definition of a fitness function, and the
fitness function combined with a fixed environment defines an evolutionary
landscape. With reproduction defined to be directly proportional to fitness
the essential evolutionary dynamic becomes the change in distribution of
strategies over time. This model is then extended with the introduction of
the G-function method, in which a generalised fitness generating function is
introduced for all species evolving within the strategy space. The
G-function easily allows the evolutionary model to support a dynamic tension
between competition within a population and between populations. Several
interesting consequences occur when modelling evolution with G-functions,
not the least of which is that evolution does not result in a maximisation
of fitness.