Skip to main content

Cooperation, Competition, the Silk Road and Black Death

Monday, April 21, 2025

Years ago, I came across a book that has intrigued me ever since: The Evolution of Cooperation (1984) by Robert Axelrod.

In it, Axelrod delves into a timeless question: how can cooperation arise and thrive in competitive environments where selfishness seems to always give the upper hand? Through computer simulations grounded in game theory, he explores how cooperative behavior can evolve—even when individuals are tempted to betray one another for personal gain.

The strategies tested in the simulations fell into three main categories. The “good guy” strategies were those that prioritized cooperation and never initiated betrayal. The “bad guy” strategies took an opportunistic approach, betraying occasionally to maximize short-term gains. Then there was a third group: the random strategies, which made unpredictable choices between cooperation and betrayal in each round.

To me, the results felt almost like a fairy-tale ending—surprising and thought-provoking. The good guy strategies consistently outperformed the others. The scheming strategies, though initially effective, eventually collapsed. Even amid ruthless competition, cooperation emerged as the strongest and most sustainable path to success.

This challenges one of our deeply held assumptions: that selfishness and power always prevail. Axelrod’s findings suggest the opposite. Under the right conditions, kindness wins. His work has shaped thinking across disciplines, from political science and economics to evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence.

What continues to fascinate me is how this insight plays out in real life. We often feel disheartened when manipulative or powerful or ruthless people seem to succeed while those who act with kindness and integrity are left behind. Axelrod’s work suggests that cooperation may be underestimated in the short term, but it holds lasting advantages. In the long arc of time, it’s the kindness that wins.

That brings me to the Silk Road story, another network of interaction—on the dusty routes of history: the Silk Road and the Black Death.

The medieval superhighway of commerce, the Silk Road also harbored a darker legacy. It played a pivotal role in one of the deadliest pandemics in human history—the Black Death. Between 1346 and 1352, the plague swept across Europe, killing over 50 million people. Its path of destruction, many believe, was paved by the very trade routes that once linked empires and ideas.

As Mark Welford, author of Geographies of Plague Pandemics, observed: “The Silk Road allowed, possibly for the first time, the sustained transmission of diseases endemic to Central Asia to move out along the Road to Europe.”

The Silk Road was not a single route, but a web of pathways stretching across the Central Asian steppes. Scattered along this network were caravanserais—roadside inns where travelers and animals could rest. These hubs of exchange brought together merchants, camels, rodents, and, unintentionally, fleas carrying Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for the plague. The mingling of people and animals created the perfect storm for disease transmission.

In a 2015 study, Norwegian and Swedish scientists proposed that climate fluctuations in the Central Asian steppes triggered a sharp decline in the local rodent population. As a result, the fleas carrying the plague bacterium sought new hosts—camels and their human handlers. Over the course of a decade, the caravans slowly carried the plague westward, until it reached the outskirts of Europe.

Continue tomorrow…

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-Axelrod/dp/0465005640

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1412887112

https://www.history.com/articles/silk-road-black-death

Geographies of Plague Pandemics: The Spatial-Temporal Behavior of Plague to the Modern Day, by Mark Welford, 2018.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rhetoric of Collapse: How The NYT Frames China for American Eyes

Yesterday, I read a New York Times article written by a Chinese contributor. I was curious:  What made this one acceptable for publication? It opened with this line: “Two Chinas inhabit the American imagination: One is a technology and manufacturing superpower poised to lead the world. The other is an economy that’s on the verge of collapse.” At first glance, the author appears to structure her piece around this duality—a balanced portrayal of “two Chinas.” But beneath that seemingly neutral framing lies a clear agenda:  to dismantle the myth of an unstoppable China by amplifying China's weaknesses and problems . The imbalance presentation becomes obvious through  tone and content distribution : 1. The "Hopeful China" (~20–25% of the article)  A brief survey of China’s tech rise: Mentions of DeepSeek, BYD, Huawei, high-speed rail, solar panels, EVs, and robotics. A quote from Jensen Huang claiming China is “not behind” the U.S. in AI. Anecdotes about resilient compan...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Mom, where are you? Why did you abandon me?” A mother’s reflection on work, sacrifice, and the narrow window of childhood

In 2002, I was laid off when our entire team was let go during Sprint’s massive outsourcing drive. Around that time, I received several contract job offers from other parts of the country. But taking any of them would mean going alone—leaving behind my young children and the rest of my family. My mother in China couldn’t understand my choice to stay home. To her generation, a job is never something you turn down—especially when mouths need feeding. But I couldn’t shake off a simple question: What would it mean for my children to grow up without their mother during their most vulnerable years? A friend of mine, who was laid off at the same time, took a different path. She moved to Florida alone for work. Years later, her son revealed what he went through in her absence. As a child, he would wander out alone in the evenings, crying and calling into the dark, “Mom, where are you? Why did you abandon me?” His words were both heartbreaking and haunting, even now, whenever I think of it, I f...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Price of Friendship, The Value of Self

Saturday, May 3rd, 2025 On May 1st, my daughter biked 15 miles from Brooklyn to our place in Oakland Gardens. She quit her well-paying job back in October 2021 and is now preparing to start graduate school this fall. I asked if she ever regretted leaving that job. She replied, “Not really. I only regret not starting grad school earlier—or not quitting sooner.” Then she added with a smile, “Well, better late than never.” I couldn’t agree more. She also shared a recent decision that made me proud. Someone was organizing a birthday celebration for a friend of hers, and the total cost—gift, museum tickets, and a fancy dinner—would have added up to $200 or $300. That was beyond her budget, so she politely declined and explained why. The organizer, a lawyer herself, understood and suggested a less expensive venue. I admire my daughter for setting boundaries—not out of selfishness, but out of clarity. Saying “no” is more about self-respect than anything else. Only when we honor our own limits...
Post a Comment
Read more