On Information Sharing and the Evolution of Collectives

Michael Lachmann, Guy Sella and Eva Jablonka

Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: During the evolution of life, there have been several transitions in which individuals began to cooperate, forming higher levels of organization, and sometimes losing their independent reproductive identity (Bonner, 1988; Maynard-Smith and Szathmary, 1995; Wilson, 1971; Buss, 1987; Jablonka, 1994). For example, multicellularity and insect societies evolved independently multiple times. Several factors that confer evolutionary advantages on higher levels of organization have been proposed. Two such factors which may yield advantages are division of labor and increased size (Bonner, 1988; Maynard-Smith and Szathmary, 1995). In this paper we highlight another factor: information sharing. Information sharing is not subject to the intrinsic conservation laws that characterize the sharing of physical resources. A simple model will illustrate how information sharing can result in individuals that both receive more information about their environment and pay less for it. These effects may have played a role in the evolution of higher levels of organization.

Accepted by Proc. Roy. Soc. B

Date: 1999-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cdm, nep-cmp, nep-fin, nep-gth, nep-ind and nep-pol
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:99-03-018

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().