On Reciprocal Altruism

For a long time Darwinism struggled to adequately explain altruism, or, what appeared to be the giving of gifts or services with no expected return.  When the concept of reciprocal altruism was first proposed, many who believed in the goodness of humankind revolted; for how can our goodness be based in selfishness?  It was simply too glib to say that generosity evolved because of reciprocity.  But the two concepts are not mutually exclusive.  One can be truly altruistic and still get a competitive advantage because of that altruism.  For the religious, this could even be couched in the language of theology and construed as God's reward for good behavior.  

So, some questions for religious people: why oppose Darwinian explanations for human behavior?  Does studying physics or geology diminish the beauty of nature?  Does understanding how a zygote works make me love my daughter any less?  Does accepting that generosity builds community invalidate goodness itself?    

Comments

[Martin J Sallberg]

Altough apes do learn by imitating, there is not a single observation of apes actively teaching knowledge. They simply imitate by ”peeping”. And when they do imitate, they only learn the parts of the process that is necessary to reach the desired result.

Apes are known to be extremely competitive. Is it possible that it is that competitiveness that makes the apes unwilling to share their knowledge, and also makes lying so commonplace that the only biologically viable behavior is to assume that all communication is deception?

Until recently, it was assumed that the genetic bottleneck effect seen in modern humans were caused by the Toba volcanic eruption 75 000 years ago, despite the fact that it is well known that fossils of early humans are extremely rare. Howewer archaeological evidence has shown that anatomically modern humans lived outside Africa before that eruption and survived it. If the Toba eruption really were the cause of the bottleneck, the descendants of those early emigrants would be almost like a separate species even today.

Yet the DNA study that shows it is doubtful if modern humans can be subdivided into races at all is irrefutable. The significance of the Toba eruption are thus overblown. The neanderthal genome project have proven that they too show a form of bottleneck effect, so it appears that our ancestors have been rare since before the sapiens/neanderthal split, possibly much further back. So genetic evidence shows that the best explanation for the rarity of hominin fossils is that hominins were rare.

Humans are often referred to as ”herd animals”, despite the fact that (most) humans, altough they want to socialise part of the time, they also want to be alone part of the time. True herd animals, on the other hand, would find an hour or so of solitude extremely stressing. The rarity of human ancestors thus means that semisociality were a successful strategy to avoid competition while still being able to cooperate (that is, they had a social half to cooperate and a solitary half to avoid competition). And when our ancestors no longer had to compete, it became biologically viable to them to voluntarily share things including knowledge, and they did not need to suspect that communication was deception anymore. Teaching and learning became a Darwinian advantage!

Is it possible that so called ”human vices” are actually congestional vices? Archaeological evidence shows that early human culture were peaceful and egalitarian and that war and stratification began independently in most parts of the world, roughly simultaneously (6000-7000 years ago). That is, according to archaeological evidence, the same time as ”vacant lots” were starting to run out for our ancestors! Anthropologists have documented a few cultures that are/were anarchic yet peaceful, but only in very sparsely populated areas without any resources that could attract plunderers or conquerors, essentially nonmalthusian skansens.

War, pollution, deforestation and so on are not the result of any biologically inherent shortsightedness. Most people refrain from stopping destruction of the environment and go into war only out of fear of punishment.

So global overpopulation are causing culture to degenerate into animalistic forms. Patents, immaterial rights and classified information are tendencies toward returning to apelike refusal to share knowledge. Commercials, official propaganda, religious leaders and bluffers trying to make money all force people back into apelike suspiciousness to survive. Conspiracy theories and absurd theatre are already common. In the long run, it may even cause a genetic selection that strips humanity of its extelligence, a true return to the apes.

There is one hope, howewer. Space colonization with self-sufficient space stations and cheap launches would solve the congestion problem and thussave/restore mankinds intellect.