LOCATION & TIMING:

Unless otherwise noted, we meet from 4pm-6pm every Monday at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St 2nd Floor, Cambridge MA 02138:
[Map here]

DESCRIPTION:

The Cooperation Seminar is an informal multidisciplinary weekly meeting that discusses issues and reviews emerging research on the underpinnings of cooperation, both online and in the material world. The program combines speaker presentations with discussions of our participants' ongoing research initiatives. Past seminars have covered work in evolutionary biology, computer science, experimental economics, psychology, sociology, neuro-psychology, law, and anthropology.

Our group seeks to bring together people from varied backgrounds who are interested in studying cooperation, promote discussion, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Each meeting we will generally have one speaker give an informal presentation, with many interruptions for questions, discussion, and debate. Last year talk topics included intentions vs consequences in moral judgments, the role of punishment in the evolution of cooperation, collaboration in scientific research, political fundraising, and human systems design, to mention a few.

We welcome new participants, and inquiries from individuals who wish to present their research. To find out about upcoming seminar topics, you may join the seminar email list by emailing Dave Rand and subscribing to our Google group.

Contact: Dave Rand
Visit our Google Group Page (email Dave to subscribe)

SCHEDULE FALL 2009:

9/14/2009   
Kobi Gal   
Harvard Computer Science   
Cooperative strategies in  uncertain domains

9/21/2009   
Felix Warneken   
Harvard Psychology   
The Roots of Human Altruism in Ontogeny and Phylogeny

9/28/2009   
Chris Oveis   
Harvard Psychology   
Power and Compassion: Signals, Intuitions, and Conflicts

10/5/2009   
Haoqi Zhang   
Harvard Computer Science   
A General Approach to Environment Design

10/12/2009   
NO MEETING        

10/19/2009   
Sheen Levine   
Singapore Management University   
Why Do They Share? Mechanisms of Generalized Exchange (aka Pay it Forward)

10/26/2009    Herb Gintis   
UMass Amherst Economics   
Moral Sentiments and Material Interests

11/2/2009   
NO MEETING

11/9/2009   
Simon Gachter  
University of Nottingham Economics   
Costly cooperation and punishment from a behavioral economics perspective
OFFSITE: This talk will happen at PED, 1 Brattle Sq 6th Floor in Harvard Sq
http://ped.fas.harvard.edu/location/walking.html

11/16/2009   
Sam Bowles   
Sante Fe Institute 
A cooperative species: evolutionary models and the Pleistocene human condition
OFFSITE: This talk will happen at PED, 1 Brattle Sq 6th Floor in Harvard Sq
http://ped.fas.harvard.edu/location/walking.html

11/23/2009   
Judith Donath   
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard
The economics of trust: Signaling theory applied to human Communication

11/30/2009   
Jesse Shapins & James Burns    
Harvard   
Mapping Main Street: Experiments in the New Genre of Collaborative Documentary Media

12/7/2009  
Thomas Pfeiffer   
Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics   
The reliability of scientific results