Excerpt

This short paper is both important and controversial. It is a generalization of Fisher’s fundamental theorem (1930), and Hamilton’s rule (1964). But before we delve into the science, we should learn about the author. George R. Price had his fifteen minutes of national fame when in 1955 he published a paper in the journal Science arguing against recent claims of experimental proof of extra-sensory perception (ESP). Swift rebuttals followed in, among others, in The New York Times, Esquire, and a whole dedicated issue in Science. Price then turned to trying to revolutionize the process of design by describing a system that would enable using computers during the design process—his contribution can be seen as an important part in the invention of computer-aided design (CAD). In 1967 Price moved to the United Kingdom, where he worked in evolutionary theory and kin selection, discussing it with W. D. Hamilton, and later with John Maynard Smith on the concept of an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS)—an evolutionary equivalent of the Nash equilibrium. George Price’s life ended tragically by suicide in January 1975.

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—. 1972. “Extension of Covariance Selection Mathematics.” Annals of Human Genetics 35 (4): 485– 490. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1809.1957.tb01874.x.

—. 1995. “The Nature of Selection.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 175 (3): 389–396. https://doi.org/10.1006/jtbi.1995.0149.

Rice, S. H. 2008. “A Stochastic Version of the Price Equation Reveals the Interplay of Deterministic and Stochastic Processes in Evolution.” BMC Evolutionary Biology 8 (1): 262. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-8-262.

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