Look Who it Was Random video

John Maynard Smith - Developing a deeper interest in the living world (2/102)

3,214 views · Published 22 March 2017 · 0:54 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

Watch on YouTube

To hear more of John Maynard Smith’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b0Nm_L3TKg&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzJSvAc4MBuUP_GrjO1lLHp

The late British biologist John Maynard Smith (1920-2004) is famous for applying game theory to the study of natural selection. In 1973 Maynard Smith formalised a central concept in game theory called the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). His ideas, presented in books such as 'Evolution and the Theory of Games', were enormously influential and led to a more rigorous scientific analysis and understanding of interactions between living things. [Listener: Richard Dawkins; date recorded: 1997]

TRANSCRIPT: There are two... routes, which I think you'll find in most evolutionary biologists, not all of them. One is this route of a fascination in animals and plants. And I was even fascinated by plants, I collected plants and so on, picked them and tried to find out what they were. And the other is this sort of philosophical thing, hard to describe. I mean, I've always been interested in where did we come from, how did we get here, a kind of searching about origins. But I don't think these two threads of my life, the philosophical fascination in where did we come from and the natural history fascination in animals, really came together, I guess, until - actually, I exaggerate - I think it was probably I was 15 before those two threads came together and made me interested in evolution, in... in adaptation, in explanations about animals.

More from this channel