From Bacteria to the Global CommonsHosted by Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future
Simon A. Levin, George M. Moffett Professor of Biology and director of the Center for BioComplexity at Princeton University, draws upon biological, ecological, and economic models of collective behavior to argue for international cooperation in the first of this year’s two Pardee Distinguished Lectures. While traditional models of individual decision-making deem cooperative actions irrational, he argues, altruistic behaviors are common throughout the natural world — and may hold the key to solving the environmental crises that both rich and poor societies now face.
We live, Levin says, in a world of “complex adaptive systems,” where millions of small-scale interactions among individuals over time create larger patterns of behaviors, norms, and collective actions. In many cases, however, we still think and act as individuals, without regard for how our actions affect the larger community: for example, a person may forgo a vaccination to avoid risks, but by doing so could put himself and others at risk for the disease. Groups and even nations behave the same way, he argues, which is why environmental crises such as the collapse of North American fisheries or the failure to slow global warming exist. But while we often think cooperation will hurt us, Levin says, group behavior and altruism are pervasive in nature. From bees and wasps to plaque-creating bacteria and slime molds, many species — including our own — are hardwired to cooperate. He explores scientific and economic studies of why groups form, how leaders are chosen, and why cooperation works, concluding, “Global warming will require cooperation more than anything else … so that we can achieve a sustainable future for our children and our grandchildren.”
About the Speaker:
Simon A. Levin is the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology and director of the Center for BioComplexity at Princeton University, where he founded the Princeton Environmental Institute. He is a fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He edited the Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, I-V (2000) and the forthcoming The Princeton Guide to Ecology (2009). Levin is a former president of the Ecological Society of America, which awarded him its MacArthur Award in 1988 and a Distinguished Service Citation in 1998. He has received the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences (2004), the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (2005), and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award (2007) for his contributions to computational and theoretical biology and ecology. He will serve as a Resources for the Future University Fellow through 2011. He holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
