[ExI] [Evol, Soc] Survival of the Selfless

[hkhenson]

At 02:21 PM 11/28/2007, you wrote:
>"The consensus that formed in the 1960s turned group selection into a
>pariah concept, taught primarily as an example of how not to think.

I am going to have to read this closely.  I usually don't disagree 
with EO Wilson, but this might be the time.

Humans don't come with reliable ways to accurately measure 
relatedness.  Thus we depend on secondary ways like who was around in 
our childhood.  This is *known* to be the way humans avoid mating 
with close relatives.

So "relative" in the inclusive fitness sense is kind of fuzzy. That 
being the case, acting for the "good of the group" and acting for 
relatives who share your genes was pretty much the same thing during 
the EEA when we lived in small bands with a high level of relatedness.

You can make a case that saving strangers from a burning house in the 
modern world is a misfiring due to the fuzzy concept of "relative."

That doesn't keep it from being a damn good thing to do!

Keith Henson