It's a lot like a binary diff, where phenotype is the source code, natural selection the programmer, and the genome the binary. Natural selection works on the

It's a lot like a binary diff, where phenotype is the source code, natural selection the programmer, and the genome the binary. Natural selection works on the phenotype, and you are saying that at all times the binary diff is compact, or sensible to talk about. Untrue. In fact it's trivially untrue because the genome is too small. Group altruism is stable and is a very strong attractor of population behavior. All that's required is that group members be able to recognize one another. http://people.brynmawr.edu/twong/models/pseudoaltruism.html http://people.brynmawr.edu/twong/models/pseudoaltruism.html Individuals born into such a group may learn this or it may be genetically inherited (instinctual), or both. Of course the distinction between learning and instinct is also a bit fuzzy.