The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars
eBook - PDF

The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars

Cheating and Deception in the Living World

  1. 289 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars

Cheating and Deception in the Living World

About this book

A natural history of cheating from selfish genes to lying politicians

Nature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes and cells cheat. The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars explores the evolution of cheating in the natural world, revealing how dishonesty has given rise to wondrous diversity.

Blending cutting-edge science with a wealth of illuminating examples—from microscopic organisms to highly intelligent birds and mammals—Lixing Sun shows how cheating in nature relies on two basic rules. One is lying, by which cheaters exploit honest messages in communication signals and use them to serve their own interests. The other is deceiving, by which cheaters exploit the biases and loopholes in the sensory systems of other creatures. Sun demonstrates that cheating serves as a potent catalyst in the evolutionary arms race between the cheating and the cheated, resulting in a biological world teeming with complexity and beauty.

Brimming with insight and humor, The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars also looks at the prevalence of cheating in human society, identifying the kinds of cheating that spur innovation and cultural vitality and laying down a blueprint for combatting malicious cheating such as fake news and disinformation.

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Information

Publisher
Princeton University Press
Year
2023
Print ISBN
9780691256849
9780691198606
eBook ISBN
9780691245737
Topic
Biological Sciences
Subtopic
Ecology
Index
Biological Sciences

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Chapter 1: Liar, Liar, Everywhere
  4. Chapter 2: Hackers and Suckers in Communication
  5. Chapter 3: Nature’s Eavesdroppers, Impostors, and Con Artists
  6. Chapter 4: Infidelity and the Rise of Honesty
  7. Chapter 5: Catalyst for Innovation
  8. Chapter 6: Cheating in Humans
  9. Color Plates
  10. Chapter 7: Liars Who Lie to Themselves
  11. Chapter 8: Living with Lies and Deceptions
  12. Acknowledgments
  13. Notes
  14. Bibliography
  15. Index

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Yes, you can access The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars by Lixing Sun in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Ecology. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.