The Red Queen's race is an incident that appears in

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

'' and involves both the Red Queen, a representation of a Queen in chess, and

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

constantly running but remaining in the same spot.

"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

The Red Queen's race is often used to illustrate similar situations: * In evolutionary biology, to illustrate that sexual reproduction and the resulting genetic recombination may be just enough to allow individuals of a certain species to adapt to changes in their environment—see Red Queen hypothesis. * As an illustration of the relativistic effect that nothing can ever reach the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...

, or the invariant speed; in particular, with respect to relativistic effect on light from galaxies near the edge of the expanding

observable universe The observable universe is a Ball (mathematics), spherical region of the universe consisting of all matter that can be observation, observed from Earth; the electromagnetic radiation from these astronomical object, objects has had time to reach t ...

, or at the

event horizon In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s. In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive c ...

of a

black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

. *

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

used it in his short story " The Red Queen's Race" to illustrate the concept of predestination paradox. * In environmental sociology, to illustrate Allan Schnaiberg's concept of the treadmill of production where actors are perpetually driven to accumulate capital and expand the market in an effort to maintain relative economic and social position. * Vernor Vinge used it in his novel '' Rainbows End'' to illustrate the struggle between encouraging technological advancement and protecting the world from new weapons technologies. * James A. Robinson and

Daron Acemoglu Kamer Daron Acemoğlu (;, ; born September 3, 1967) is a Turkish Americans, Turkish-American economist of Armenians in Turkey, Armenian descent who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1993, where he is currently the Ja ...

used it in their political science book The Narrow Corridor to illustrate the competition and cooperation required between state and society required to support the spread of liberty. * Andrew F. Krepinevich used it in his article "The New Nuclear Age: How China’s Growing Nuclear Arsenal Threatens Deterrence" to illustrate how in a tripolar nuclear power system it is not possible for each state to maintain nuclear parity with the combined arsenals of its two rivals. * Marc Reisner referenced the Red Queen in his book '' Cadillac Desert'' to describe a growing

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

’ quest for water. As the city swelled in population, it required more and more water sources just to maintain a supply barely enough to sate its residents and farms. * Steve Blank used it in his article “The Red Queen Problem - Innovation in the DoD and Intelligence Community” as a metaphor for how the US Department of Defense and Intelligence community are not able to keep pace with their adversaries in the 21st century because of their outdated approach to technological innovation. * Mark Atherton used it in fraud detection and other areas of fighting online attackers to describe the never ending struggle to combat relentless adversaries. *

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...

compared the struggle for Black liberation to the Red Queen’s race in his song “Legacy”: “That’s called the Red Queen’s Race/You run this hard just to stay in place/Keep up the pace, baby/Keep up the pace.”

References

{{Alice Alice's Adventures in Wonderland English phrases 1871 introductions