Sunday, January 18, 2009

Driven by Adaptability

"From a "selfish gene" perspective, competitiveness and greed need no particular explanation beyond the obvious - I'll do whatever I can to get my genes into the next generation, even if that means stomping on all the little people on my way to the top. But if helping others by being selfless and altruistic decreases the chances of getting my genes into the next generation, why would I do it? The short answer is that it is a myth that evolution is driven by selfishness; it is, in fact, driven by adaptability, and in a social primate species like ours, more often than not the most adaptable thing you can do to survive and reproduce is to be cooperative and altruistic." (Shermer, pg. 125)

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