Bernardo A. Huberman and Natalie S. Glance
The prisoner's dilemma has long been considered the paradigm for
studying the emergence of cooperation among selfish individuals. Because
of its importance, it has been studied through computer experiments as
well as in the laboratory and by analytical means. However, there are
important differences between the way a system composed of many
interacting elements is simulated by a digital machine and the manner in
which it behaves when studied in real experiments. In some instances,
these disparities can be marked enough so as to cast doubt on the
implications of cellular automata type simulations for the study of
cooperation in social systems. In particular, if such a simulation
imposes space-time granularity, then its ability to describe the real
world may be compromised. Indeed, we show that the results of digital
simulations regarding territoriality and cooperation differ greatly when
time is discrete as opposed to continuous.
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