Events
Events:
Public Lecture on Evolution of Cooperative Behaviour Jan 31, 2018
Science Club at IISER Pune announces a public talk on:
Evolution of Cooperative Behaviour
by
Prof. Madhav Gadgil
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Time: 6:30 pm
Venue: Room no. 103, Lecture Hall Complex, IISER Pune
Abstract: Cooperation among molecules to speed up rates of each other’s replication is at the heart of the living world. The history of evolution of life is a history of emergence of cooperative consortia at successively higher levels of complexity; molecules, chromosomes, cells, sexes, many cells, cells with division of labour, colonial organisms, social animals, memes, humans, knowledge. Mutual help with a potential of asymmetric benefits is the basis of one of the simplest animal societies, that of the social wasp, Ropalidia. Ants take the next step, constituting kin groups with fixed reproductive and sterile castes. Argentine ants have evolved universal kinship and are now constituting global supercolonies. Reciprocation has become more sophisticated among mammals such as Vampire bats, and reaches its apogee with humans, the supercooperators. Direct democracy is its most mature political expression, a live example being gramsabhas in Eastern Maharashtra exercising community forest rights. Knowledge is a non-depletable resource, and science and free and open source software including Wiki are other significant expressions of cooperative behavior.
