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Even today there is no genetic model that can explain the emergence of human altruism--non-kin eusociality. Eusociality among kin, such as naked mole rat sister
by wahern 6y ago
Even today there is no genetic model that can explain the emergence of human altruism--non-kin eusociality. Eusociality among kin, such as naked mole rat sisters and bee clones, is trivially modeled using selfish gene theory. But no one has yet proposed a stable model for its emergence and persistence outside close kin groups. And in fact humans are the only species that exhibit this phenomenon. All other forms of cooperation in nature can be explained by selfish gene theory (that is, individualized sexual selection benefit directly commensurate with the individualized risk), or as non-stable outliers (e.g. a cat befriending a bird).
Apparently Darwin believed in a group selection-type model, as still many do, even though its been disproven (at least refutations have never been overcome). And if you believe in group selection I suppose one would find it easy to rationalize racial models, Victorian or otherwise, especially if you were born on an island or otherwise believed substantially physically segregated human groups--and therefore segregated sexual selection dynamics--was typical. Indeed, even today anthropologists are severely allergic to the possibility of rapid gene flow, especially back flow, of specific genes. The notion that there could have been back flow of genes into Africa is anathema, which makes it easier even for scientists to conceptualize humanity as groups of islands, rationalize group selection theories, and be more credulous of narratives whereby some groups "advance" faster than others--because good genes wouldn't individually leak out, and bad genes wouldn't individually leak in.
But that's only a partial defense of Darwin. The very fact that humans are the only species to exhibit inexplicable non-kin eusociality, while all these proposed models would apply equally well to any other species (suggesting they're incomplete, because mass selfless cooperation is quite obviously a powerful group advantage if attainable), hints at a massive gap in our understanding of our own evolution, counseling against strong positivist claims about how human evolution worked and continues to work. IOW, Darwin could have been more humble.
- babesh 6y agoYou are looking at the wrong level. It is tribal reproduction that is being optimized. An individual is just a cell of that tribe and doesn’t even need to reproduce as long as the tribe reproduces. This is just like how your hair doesn’t have to reproduce as long as you do. Also, it isn’t your genes that matter but the relative distribution of traits in a population. https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/giants.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/giants.html Look at the related reading. Look at the Catholic Church.
- wahern 6y agoAgain, models of group selection have been refuted time and time again. Group selection may still be true, but there's neither persuasive evidence nor persuasive models for that. It's merely an assertion. Which is my point. We don't know. All these theories are just building castles on sand. Obviously there are limits to human cooperation. And of course there are innumerable concordances between what we see in society (i.e. "tribal politics") and various group selection theories. But without an anchor in genetics these theories are dangerously close to--if not patently--political or religious beliefs. To reiterate, there is no established genetic model that links individual sexual selection pressures to group evolution, in the sense that evolution can select for group traits without a pathway where the genes advantage each individual, and do so incrementally as the gene spreads. (Because genes don't magically appear all at once in the entire group, and even they did you're still left with the stability problem because you also need to explain--at an individualized sexual selection pressure level--how cheaters are suppressed.) Group selection models are merely based on the tautological presumption that genetic sexual selection acts at the level of groups. Furthermore, there's no reason to believe group selection must be true in order for human altruism to have emerged. That is, it's not the only option. Though the alternatives (e.g. Joseph Jordania's theories for the emergence of articulated speech, which also explains the emergence of empathy--two birds, one stone) haven't been shown with concrete evidence either. Though at the very least they get extra points for working with selfish gene theory, rather than in seeming contravention of it. So without knowing the precise genetic dynamics of altruism (neither how it emerged nor how it persists, which isn't necessarily the same question), we can't make any strong claims about its contours, limitations, potentiality, etc, beyond hand-wavey inferences from observation, which are highly susceptible to our own prejudices.
- babesh 6y agohttps://waitbutwhy.com/2019/09/stories.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/09/stories.html I don’t know what sort of evidence or experiment you are looking for. It’s even possible that it isn’t stable and we are undergoing evolution now.
- 6y ago
- techbio 6y agoThat altruism is selected for highlights what was long selected against. The non-selfish and even selfless or self-sacrificing behaviors seem a likely consequence of eons of semi-just capital punishment as a societal level selection mechanism.