Approximately 400 million years ago (mya) there first lived a fish that we call the Coelacanth. As you might expect things were not the same then as now. It was warmer, quite a bit warmer actually. Six degrees C above today's average. Don't worry though, no one was screaming nonsense about global warming. It wasn't until about 100,000 years ago that Reporters learned what Parrots perfected well before and life was getting on just fine without them.
Not all, but much of what we know about this period can be learned from outcrops in Devon County, southwest England which is why its referred to as the Devonian. Since 1839 we've known about the Coelacanth; unearthed in Australia, lobe-finned ancestors of the tetrapods, and for 100 years we believed they went extinct some 65 million years earlier.
The Coelacanth was uniquely immutable. Over the course of nearly 350 million years it had remained basically the same. However, we know that competition in the natural world is unyielding for 99.9% of all species that have existed are now extinct - it would seem the natural conclusion of life. In this sense, adaptation seems like the only way to survive.
This sentiment is apparently true in Poker as well, and there are countless examples to support it. Strategies and the players who adopt them rise and fall in waves. Winning Poker seems to be an elusive target. At times we might think that learning the newest strategy is the only way to insure we aren't chewed up by sharks... but I can't help thinking this is mostly wrong.
One hundred years after its fossils were unearthed the Coelacanth's story took a remarkable turn. We found another one off the coast of Africa, but this time it was alive. Just imagine a Dinosaur, living, breathing, stalking around in your back yard. The Coelacanth is quite literally a Living Fossil.
How is it that a 400 million year old fish can remain unchanged and still survive? It goes against so many of our intuitions about competition. We might venture a guess that this durable fish approximates a stable point for life in the ocean on our planet. In other words, when it comes to pure strategies for survival the Coelacanth might have locked one up. I wonder what John Nash would think.
In our game of Poker, and as John Nash has proven, at least one pure strategy (or equilibrium point) exists. This is a strategy which continues to win as long as our opponents make mistakes. Because of the rake we know Poker is not a closed system, but the same could be said for life. Here the Coelacanth has set a pretty high watermark. Not bad for a fish.
VS