I've started to suspect this kind of Darwinian individualism - which probably evolves in a lot of places - is guaranteed to lead to extinction, and is likely a

I've started to suspect this kind of Darwinian individualism - which probably evolves in a lot of places - is guaranteed to lead to extinction, and is likely a critical part of the Great Filter. When a species evolves to the point it has planet-shaping capabilities it needs to be able to think about consequences on a planetary scale - not just in terms of short term individual benefits. Competitive individualism completely fails at scale. It's possible there are other Darwinian solutions - maybe life that evolves as a single cooperative colony organism - which avoid this trap. The corollary is that if we ever meet aliens, they're not going to have much in common with us.