The evolution of exploitation

The evolution of cooperation has been much studied in the context of the game of iterated prisoner´s dilemma. This paper examines, instead, the evolution of exploitation, strategies that succeed at the expense of their opponent. Exploitation is studied when opponents are close kin, against other evolved strategies, and against arbitrary strategies. A representation for strategies, called shaped prisoner´s dilemma automata, is used to find exploitative strategies using a co-evolutionary algorithm. This representation alters both the space of strategies searched and the connectivity of that space. Eight different shapes are studied in the context of their ability to find exploitative strategies.