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Smart Representations: Rationality and Evolution in a Richer Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Paolo Galeazzi  and
Michael Franke
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Abstract

Standard applications of evolutionary game theory look at a single game and focus on the evolution of behavior for that game alone. Instead, this article uses tools from evolutionary game theory to study the competition between choice mechanisms in a rich and variable multigame environment. A choice mechanism is a way of subjectively representing a decision situation, paired with a method for choosing an act based on this subjective representation. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by a case study that shows how subjective representations in terms of regret that differ from the actual fitness can be evolutionarily advantageous.

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Type
Research Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 544 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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