Wilson's critics appear to engage in a great deal of uncalled for ad hominem attacks. I hate those kinds of personal insults. As far as kinship not being essent

Wilson's critics appear to engage in a great deal of uncalled for ad hominem attacks. I hate those kinds of personal insults. As far as kinship not being essential to group cooperation, this seems plausible (though unproven) to me. Dogs are not particularly close genetic relatives to human beings, but they will clearly raise alarm and even risk their lives to protect their human companions. Dogs don't appear to understand that this might not represent an appropriately greedy strategy for propagating their genes. I'm not even sure dogs know what genes are. Dogs and humans appear to be able to socially bond without particular genetic affinity. Functional systems may be formed from dissimilar parts. Some theorize that eukaryotic cells originated through a fusion of ancient viruses and prokaryotes. Chocolate and peanut butter. Certainly this could be created within a mathematical model. Whether it occurs in nature is a different story. Group selection strikes me as an inadequate label, since particular tribes, kingdoms, nations, corporations, religions, movements emerge and vanish all the time. Human beings are masters of jumping on bandwagons and abandoning sinking ships. The real survival talent is joining and leaving groups when called for, and being valued as group participants. Being esteemed within a group may permit an individual to more readily leverage group powers. Something along the lines of "free riders earn no karma." This gives rise to a significant individual motive: raising an alarm to warn the herd may simply be a calculated risk, which if successful might raise the actor's standing within the group (or the standing of his kind or lineage, essentially a kinship argument). As far as the free rider argument goes, it's kind of hard to love a parasite. Being a jerk is somewhat anti-social behavior, and most groups tend to cast out or marginalize people who aren't team players. Ironically, this seems to be what's happening to Wilson. He's not being a team player, so the group is attempting to expel him (from his place within the rarified academic elite). Selfishness is generally viewed as unattractive, while kindness, loyalty to others and generosity are often cited as desirable traits in a potential mate. That alone would be sufficient to promote specific altruistic traits. Why does sex selection in modern day humans appear to support furtherance of altruistic tendencies, in opposition to the more clear cut, selfish motivations of the individual? Saying, "I'm the most self-centered, greediest, oppportunistic prick out there, how bout a date?" ought to be a more successful pick up line than it is.