Axelrod and company had have given a full blow to the war-mongering theory that strength and power are the only true answers to conflict.

So, if you are into the idea that it is better to be feared than loved, read this book and you may be enticed to re-consider.

Today and twentyfive years after 1984, Axelrod's famous computer tournament has become a must-know-about within biology and the political science. But only ten years after publication, its findings has become outdated. Still, people pinpoint to this book, because it gave the answer to a very pressing question of that time.

Starting with a famous political statement of Thomas Hobbes: life in Axelrod's world is solitary, brutish and short. Axelrod and his contemporaries call it the prisoner's dilemma. In this world, conflict is what life is about. The reason is betrayal, cheating and selfish thinking within the human species. The pressing question is: how to make the world work, so that a nuclear war is not automatic.

The answer is given in Axelrod's book -- and all summaries and reviews will tell it, too. Yet, another group of scientists came up with a modified answer by 1993. Thus, is Axelrod's book still worth reading? For two facts, yes.

1) The 1990s-experiments supports Axelrod's general findings that niceness is a good idea even in a brutish world, even though they came up with a slightly different twist.

2) Axelrod is just a very good writer. ( )