When I was in school, both the business and policy schools had at some point taught a lesson or two about cooperation. We learned about the Prisoner’s Dilemma game, where two people can either cooperate or defect. If both parties cooperate, both parties win, and the total benefit distributed is maximized. If one party cooperates, the defector wins more than if both parties had cooperated, but the total benefit distributed is less. If both parties defect, no one gets anything, and there is no benefit distributed.

The temptation to defect tends to be a very strong anti-social force in human behavior.

So how do we come to cooperate with one another? New research recently yielded a model on the evolution of cooperation:

Whether you’re a free-loading virus or a meat-stealing monkey, selfishness pays. So how could cooperators survive in a cheater’s world? Thomas Flatt, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown, was part of a group that created a theoretical model that neatly solves this dilemma, which has stumped evolutionary biologists and social scientists for decades. The trick: Keep the altruists in small groups, away from the swindling horde, where they multiply and migrate.

Previous research by Robert Axelrod yielded a mathematical formula that consistently beat out other players in prisoner’s dilemma challenges. The new Flatt model will now offer a new dimension to the study of cooperation, with applications in both economics and biology.

In his column today, Jim Wooten says:

We’re killing the old folks. Yep. A lack of public transportation is said to … hold on now, this ride could be a little bumpy … cause old people to die unnecessarily. In wrecks. Ah, you had to be there …

Clearly, Jim wasn’t quite there, either.

According to Science Daily, lack of public transportation is not mentioned as a cause of death. Hell, I didn’t even see transit mentioned in the story at all!

Of course, Jim is doing what he normally does: twist facts to fit his own beliefs. “Gee, those liberal scientists are so silly, creating victims all the time.”

Umm… no… Jim made it up.

The study W00t referred to made recommendations on how to make cars safer for older people to drive. It’s kind of an obvious thing to say, but as people age, they get more frail. As people get more frail, they become more succeptable to serious injury and death resulting from car wrecks.

Nevertheless, I suppose in maybe another ten years, Jim will be benefetting from the results of that study. As far as whether it’s really worth saving an unappreciative dinosaur like Jim Wooten, today would not be a good day, given the beating he’s deservedly getting on the AJC blog today.

Last night I had the pleasure of going to Horizon Theatre’s production of The Perfect Prayer, written by Suehyla El-Attar. The show and the cast were all fabulous, and Suehyla’s words were especially poignant.

In the show notes, Suehyla revived a piece of a monologue that was cut in earlier drafts of the play:

The only thing God ever intended to separate people was the distance created by land or water. But we, as the creatures we are, have to have more between us; our own land that develops our cultures, that develops our religions, leads to opinions, judgements and rules that create more and more distance between us… ’til we’re so far apart, we don’t notice we’re right next to each other.

Well spoken.

• Where has Joe been? Joe has been moving to his new condo. It wasn’t until last night when his DSL service was established and Internet things were moving again. In the meantime, Joe may eventually move to TypePad as his blogging platform. Just as soon as:
  1. Joe figures out how to create his own template, thankyouverymuch, and
  2. Joe stops referring to himself in the third person

  Joe would say things will be back to normal soon, except having long periods between posts are pretty normal anyway.

• Some people worry about politicians who pander, especially in the course of a political campaign. To some extent, it’s their job to pander to someone, or else politicians aren’t going to get many votes. Many are especially worried about Cox and Taylor, either of whom I would endorse over Perdue any day. Perdue and his party are more likely to pander to people whose idea and concept of the government’s role in our lives scares me sometimes. Cox and Taylor will duke it out through ’till the primary. Until then, I’m not getting involved.
• This weekend, GDOT will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system with an old car parade that will go from Windy Hill Road to The Varsity. This will be a good time to make a big “Addicted to oil? Try Transit” sign.
• In MARTA news, part of the Lindbergh land has been sold off to make way for construction of a 352-unit condo complex.
• My condo complex, meanwhile, has a website.
• News came out with a strong confirmation that the Earth is warmer than it has been since at least the founding of the Christian faith. This is a time that calls for renewed faith in the human spirit — that whatever challenges we meet, we can overcome them and even use those challenges as new opportunities. The Bush administration’s assertion — that enhancing our efficient use of resources would be bad for the economy — shows a complete lack of faith.
• It’s time to highlight a recent addition to the list of links you can check out on the right-side of my homepage. I’ve tried in the past to describe what form of economic development Atlanta really could use more of. In the wake of losing the war for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Atlanta officials are currently in the process of figuring out how to import other things we don’t necessarily need or already have (some of what I know is confidential, and I’ve said all I will). The City of Littleton has adopted what they call Economic Gardening, an approach that stresses an environment friendly to entrepreneurial development. (Warning: it’s not easy!)

Amazingly, not everyone understands the link between road building and traffic congestion. Well, maybe this isn’t so amazing because the common solution — building bigger highways — is so simple and easy to grasp while the real life consequences are not obvious.

Transportation infrastructure development is in some ways analagous to providing welfare for the poor. There are effective ways of getting the job done, and there are ineffective ways.

First, let’s go over the ineffective ways, which are parochial, one-size-fits-all solutions, like traditional AFDC — the wasteful predecessor to TANF. In its intial years, I’m sure AFDC did quite well in helping to alleviate poverty. After all, the Depression was in full-swing at the time, and just about any government program short of violent coersion would have helped the situation. Similarly, the big highway approach to transportation infrastructure development is a nice idea at first, but its benefits quickly evaporate due to the sort of dependent behavior it encourages.

In 1992, Anthony Downs published his book, Stuck in Traffic, where he describes a phenomenon known as Triple Convergence. When a highway is widened, commuters change their driving patterns in three specific ways:

1. Many drivers who formerly used alternative routes during peak hours switch to the improved expressway (spatial convergence).
2. Many drivers who formerly traveled just before or after the peak hours start traveling during those hours (time convergence).
3. Some commuters who used to take public transportation during peak hours now switch to driving, since it has become faster (modal convergence)

Downs discusses some solutions in his book, including increasing transit funding, raising gas taxes, and increasing housing densities, but not necessarily expanding the transit service area. These are the more effective solutions that not only reduce dependency, but also improve the local quality-of-life standards.

President Bush famously remarked that “America is addicted to oil,” but that is not the whole story. Our real addiction here is to highways and cars. Getting ourselves out of the crack carcaine habit will mean political reform more than it means finding alternative energy sources.

That level of political reform once happened with welfare. Although the TANF solution was not perfect, what we have today is a more effective system than AFDC. It’s possible that the same can happen with our land use and transportation policies.

I can only imagine a commercial like this for “saving” Atlanta’s big highways. In Seattle, the Mayor wants to replace their big, ugly double-decked highway with a tunnel, kind of similar to Boston’s Big Dig project.

Meanwhile, GDOT wants to double-deck I-285 and build Atlanta’s own big ugly thing (make sure to vote “no” on this online poll asking if GDOT should get its wish).

Too bad there’s no mayor of the northside area of Atlanta to say, “let’s put that highway where it belongs and bury it.”

Then again, the real Committee to Build Big Ugly Things would have to come out and say, “but that would become valuable, desirable land, and we wouldn’t want that!”

Update: In addition to big and ugly, you can also add expensive to consumers to the list, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.