Decoding the Gurus cover image

Robert Wright: A Cosmic Journey Across the Bob-o-verse

Decoding the Gurus

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Altruism

For kin selection to occur, it doesn't require organisms that have concepts of kin or even organisms with well developed ians. All it requires is that it's beneficial in the terms of producing more copies. And this leads neatly on to talking about altruism. You've got three strands of identical, say, r and a, floating around in the primordial ooze. If there's something that threatens all three, a the first one to sense it step out and saysd and does a self sacrificial thing that saves the other two, ok, that will be favored by natural selection.

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