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Red Queen hypothesis - Wikipedia
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Background reference for AI safety discussions involving evolutionary arms races, adversarial co-evolution analogies (e.g., red-teaming, AI-human competitive dynamics), or competitive equilibria in multi-agent systems.
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Summary
The Red Queen hypothesis, proposed by Leigh Van Valen in 1973, posits that species must continuously evolve just to maintain their relative fitness against co-evolving competing species. It explains age-independent extinction rates, the evolutionary advantage of sexual reproduction, and the relationship between speciation and extinction rates. The concept draws from Lewis Carroll's metaphor of running just to stay in place.
Key Points
- •Species must constantly adapt and evolve not to improve fitness but merely to avoid losing ground to co-evolving competitors — an evolutionary zero-sum game.
- •Originally proposed to explain 'Van Valen's Law': extinction probability is constant over time for a taxon, independent of species age.
- •Extended to explain the advantage of sexual reproduction, which generates genetic diversity useful for keeping pace with parasites and pathogens.
- •The hypothesis implies that evolutionary progress by one species degrades the fitness of competing species, keeping overall system fitness constant.
- •Has broad relevance as a framework for understanding arms races, co-evolution, and competitive dynamics in complex adaptive systems.
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| Page | Type | Quality |
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| Red Queen Bio | Organization | 55.0 |
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# Red Queen hypothesis
Red Queen hypothesis
For the incident in _Through the Looking-Glass_, see [Red Queen's race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen's_race "Red Queen's race").
Concept in evolutionary biology
The **Red Queen hypothesis** is a [hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis "Hypothesis") in [evolutionary biology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_biology "Evolutionary biology") proposed in 1973, that species must constantly [adapt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation "Adaptation"), [evolve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution "Evolution"), and proliferate in order to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing species. The hypothesis was intended to explain the constant (age-independent) [extinction probability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_probability "Extinction probability") as observed in the [paleontological](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology "Paleontology") record caused by co-evolution between competing [species](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species "Species");[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis#cite_note-ANEL-1) however, it has also been suggested that the Red Queen hypothesis explains the advantage of [sexual reproduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_reproduction "Sexual reproduction") (as opposed to [asexual reproduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction "Asexual reproduction")) at the level of individuals,[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis#cite_note-Bell1982-2) and the positive correlation between [speciation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation "Speciation") and [extinction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction "Extinction") rates in most higher [taxa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxon "Taxon").[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis#cite_note-:0-3)
## Origin
[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alice_queen2.jpg)"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." — Lewis Carroll[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis#cite_note-The_New_American_Library-4)
In 1973, [Leigh Van Valen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Van_Valen "Leigh Van Valen") proposed the hypothesis as an "explanatory tangent" to explain the "law of extinction" known as "Van Valen's law",[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis#cite_note-ANEL-1) which states that the probability of [extinction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction "Extinction") does not depend on the lifetime of the species or higher-rank taxon, instead being constant over millions of years for any given taxon. However, the probability of extinction is strongly related to [adaptive zones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_zone "Adaptive zone"), because different taxa have different probabilities of extinction.[\[1\]](https://en.wikiped
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