On the Evolutionary and Behavioral Dynamics of Social Coordination: Models and Theoretical Aspects

On the Evolutionary and Behavioral Dynamics of Social Coordination: Models and Theoretical Aspects Ezequiel Alejandro Di Paolo Submitted for the degree of DPhil University of Sussex January, 1999 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted, either in the same or different form, to this or any other University for a degree. Signature: Acknowledgements During the period I spent in Sussex I have learnt a lot, explored a lot and met a lot of interesting people who were always keen to take each other seriously in a relaxed environment. Many of the ideas presented in this thesis have matured within this context. I would like to thank my supervisor during the last three years, Phil Husbands, for providing guidance, help and being always open to new ideas no matter how strange they may have sounded initially. I would also like to thank Inman Harvey, who often played a role of supervisor himself by being always available to discuss problems and make useful suggestions which often were strangely radical and down-to-earth at the same time. Seth Bullock and Jason Noble contributed a lot to this thesis. The many opportunities in which we discussed our work and the work of others have often been key moments in the development of my research. I am very grateful to them. I must also thank the help I got from other people inside and outside COGS in the form of comments on my work, discussions and suggestions: Guillermo Abramson, Ron Chrisley, Dave Cliff, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Joe Faith, Ronald Lemmen, Matt Quinn, Lars Risan, Anil Seth, Oli Sharpe and Mike Wheeler. I am also grateful for comments and suggestions made by anonymous referees on my journal and conference publications. By being passionate about their own work, some people inspired me to approach ideas of which I was completely ignorant when I first came to Sussex. In this category I must especially thank Inman, Ronald and Mike. This research could not have been carried out without the support of my family in Argentina, my parents, my brothers, my sister and my in-laws. This support has so many dimensions I can hardly begin to explore this space but I must especially thank their love and help. Among my friends I cannot avoid mentioning the support received from Alberto Baruj whose selfless help in taking care of our house in Bariloche provided the fundamental peace of mind I needed to carry on. Thanks, Beto. Thanks also to those two undending sources of canine motivation: Psycho and Trash. Without them life would have been much easier and extremely boring. Finally, this thesis could not have even started were it not for the encouragement, love, con- fidence, intellectual support and unique character of a single person: Marina, my wife. She has made a lot of sacrifices which I will never be able to repay entirely although I hope she takes this thesis as a first installment. During the last three years I received financial support from different sources. I am grateful to the Argentine Ministry of Education, the National Atomic Agency and the Consejo de Inves- tigaciones Cient´ıficas y Técnicas de la República Argentina. I am also grateful for an Overseas Research Student Award I received during 1997/1998 from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. My wife contributed enormously to our financial viability as a result of her per- sonal effort; for this I will be permanently in debt with her. Preface Some of the chapters within this thesis have benefited from comments made by anonymous reviewers as a result of their being published elsewhere. In particular, parts of chapter 6 have appeared as (Di Paolo, 1997b) and (Di Paolo, 1997a). Shorter versions of chapters 7 and 9 were previously published as (Di Paolo, 1998a) and (Di Paolo, 1998b) respectively. Also, parts of chapter 9 will appear as (Di Paolo, 1999). The author is extremely thankful to all the reviewers for their criticisms and comments on how to improve the manuscripts. On the Evolutionary and Behavioral Dynamics of Social Coordination: Models and Theoretical Aspects Ezequiel Alejandro Di Paolo Abstract An exploration is presented of the interplay between the situated activity of embodied autonomous organisms and the social dynamics they constitute in interaction, with special emphasis on evolutionary, ecological and behavioral aspects. The thesis offers a series of theoretical and methodological criticisms of recent investigations on the biology of social behavior and animal communication. An alternative theoretical framework, based on a systemic theory of biological autonomy, is provided to meet these criticisms and the elaboration of the corresponding theoretical arguments is supported by the construction and analysis of mathematical and computational models. A game of action coordination is studied by a series of game-theoretic, ecological and computational models which, by means of systematic comparisons, permit the identification of the evolutionary relevance of different factors like finite populations, ecological and genetic constraints, spatial patterns, discreteness and stochasticity. Only in an individual-based model is it found that cooperative action coordination is evolutionarily stable. This is due to the emergence of spatial clusters in the spatial distribution of players which break many of the in-built symmetries of the game and act as invariants of the dynamics constraining the path of viable evolution. An extension to this model explores other structuring effects by adding the possibility of parental influences on phenotypic development. The result is a further stabilization of cooperative coordination which is explained by the presence of self-promoting networks of developmental relationships which enslave the evolutionary dynamics. The behavioral aspects involved in the attainment of a coordinated state between autonomous systems are studied in a simulated model of embodied agents coupled through an acoustic medium. Agents must locate and approach each other only by means of continuous acoustic signals. The results show the emergence of synchronized rhythmic signalling patterns that resemble turn-taking which is accompanied by coherent patterns of movement. It is demonstrated that coordination results from the achievement of structural congruence between the agents during interaction. Submitted for the degree of DPhil University of Sussex January, 1999 Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Overview of the thesis . .............................. 3 1.1.1 Towards a systemic view of social behavior ................ 3 1.1.2 Historical processes ............................ 4 1.1.3 Methodological issues ........................... 5 1.1.4 Modelling the evolution of cooperative coordination . ........ 6 1.1.5 An evolutionary role for social influences on development ........ 8 1.1.6 Coordination without non-shared information ............... 9 1.1.7 Coordination, structural congruence and embodiment . ........ 10 1.2 Summary of contributions ............................. 11 2 Towards a biology of social behavior: a systemic perspective 14 2.1 The pragmatic need for a biological grounding ................... 15 2.2 Functional and operational approaches ....................... 16 2.3 Confusing the domains of discourse: the case of animal communication ..... 20 2.3.1 Selective advantages as a defining feature of communication ....... 20 2.3.2 Some ill-defined terms ........................... 21 2.3.3 Practical consequences for research . ................... 24 2.4 A systemic perspective on social behavior . ................... 26 2.4.1 Basic concepts . .............................. 26 2.4.2 Coordination . .............................. 29 2.4.3 Changing the practical issues of interest: animal communication again . 32 2.5 Summary ...................................... 36 3 Historical processes 38 3.1 From homogeneous time to historical time through self-organization ....... 38 3.1.1 Constraints . .............................. 39 3.1.2 Invariants .................................. 41 3.2 Different manifestations of history ......................... 43 3.2.1 Trails on grass and Pask’s artificial ear ................... 43 3.2.2 Polya’s urn scheme ............................. 44 3.2.3 Evolution.................................. 45 3.2.4 Embodiment, culture and habitus ..................... 49 3.3 Explanatory value of spontaneous invariants . ................... 51 3.4 Summary ...................................... 52 Contents vii 4 Methodological issues in the use of formal models and computer simulations 53 4.1 A pragmatic approach to formal modelling . ................... 54 4.2 A scientific use for computer simulations . ................... 59 4.2.1 Science and instruments .......................... 61 4.2.2 Tools in scientific activity ......................... 61 4.2.3 Thought experiments ............................ 64 4.2.4 Simulations as tools ............................ 65 4.2.5 Integrating simulations in biology . ................... 67 4.2.6 Exploring, experimenting, explaining ................... 70 4.3 Summary ...................................... 72 5 A game of action coordination: mathematical models 75 5.1 The game ...................................... 76 5.2 Game-theoretic analysis . .............................. 78 5.2.1 Strategies .................................. 79 5.2.2 Infinite population: static analysis . ................... 81 5.2.3 Infinite population: dynamical analysis .................. 82 5.2.4 Finite population: dynamical analysis ..................

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