Nectar. Flowers that attract pollinators survive better, and they accomplish this by providing a reward for behavior that enhances their reproductive function. This is an interesting distinction in thinking about symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships can be “accidental,” in that behavior that benefits organism A also happens to benefit organism B, or “incentivized,” where organism B has evolved to produce a reward to motivate organism A’s beneficial behavior. An example is the red-billed oxpecker, which eats ticks and other insects off the backs of black rhinos. There is no need for an evolved incentive to motivate the red-billed oxpecker to engage in this behavior. An unintended consequence is that apiculture for honey leads to human cultivation of flowers and their pollinators, increasing the reward for high nectar-producing flowers.
The hedonistic treadmill. Short-lived hits of pleasure keep you motivated to continue working, so that you can afford more and bigger hits. We’re highly familiar with the problematic aspects of this psychological structure. What if instead, we sought to use it for good? This suggests that we’d try to actively pursue more small, somewhat costly hits of pleasure throughout the day, in order to motivate ourselves to work harder. Instead of encouraging people to increase their wealth by saving and austerity, we’d encourage them to spend on themselves more often—to create their own carrot to chase.
Angiogenesis. Various signaling molecules can trigger the production of new blood vessels, which supply nutrients to the local cell population—a reward simply for announcing their need for more resources. Cancer cells secrete VEGF and growth factors to stimulate angiogenesis. The body seems to rely on the immune system to police itself for cancerous growth, “trusting” that cells are requesting angiogenesis only when needed.
I particularly like the first & third one. John and I talked about incentive mechanisms in biological world (organisms, biological evolution, etc.) and these are really good examples of it.
Nectar. Flowers that attract pollinators survive better, and they accomplish this by providing a reward for behavior that enhances their reproductive function. This is an interesting distinction in thinking about symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships can be “accidental,” in that behavior that benefits organism A also happens to benefit organism B, or “incentivized,” where organism B has evolved to produce a reward to motivate organism A’s beneficial behavior. An example is the red-billed oxpecker, which eats ticks and other insects off the backs of black rhinos. There is no need for an evolved incentive to motivate the red-billed oxpecker to engage in this behavior. An unintended consequence is that apiculture for honey leads to human cultivation of flowers and their pollinators, increasing the reward for high nectar-producing flowers.
The hedonistic treadmill. Short-lived hits of pleasure keep you motivated to continue working, so that you can afford more and bigger hits. We’re highly familiar with the problematic aspects of this psychological structure. What if instead, we sought to use it for good? This suggests that we’d try to actively pursue more small, somewhat costly hits of pleasure throughout the day, in order to motivate ourselves to work harder. Instead of encouraging people to increase their wealth by saving and austerity, we’d encourage them to spend on themselves more often—to create their own carrot to chase.
Angiogenesis. Various signaling molecules can trigger the production of new blood vessels, which supply nutrients to the local cell population—a reward simply for announcing their need for more resources. Cancer cells secrete VEGF and growth factors to stimulate angiogenesis. The body seems to rely on the immune system to police itself for cancerous growth, “trusting” that cells are requesting angiogenesis only when needed.
I particularly like the first & third one. John and I talked about incentive mechanisms in biological world (organisms, biological evolution, etc.) and these are really good examples of it.