A book that will help you extend the concept of evolution to tackle problems beyond biology into the human drama of your social world including economics, business, and relationships. Why would evolution matter in these areas? Because these aspects of our lives were subject to the same rules of evolution as our bodies and behaviors. We evolved to be social creatures, and so our social constructs could benefit from an analysis centered on evolution.
Don't make a monkey out of yourself
Recent Harris poll
of Americans adults showed that 54% believe that humans didn't
develop from earlier species, that is up from 46% in 1994. p2
Looks like these people are not developing either!
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Or the chicken from the hell?
A scientist/farmer
wanted to increase egg production and tried to do it in 2 ways. The
first method involved selecting the most productive hens from each of
a number cages to breed the next generation. The second method
involved selecting all the hens from the most productive cages to
breed. After 6 generations, the results were ghastly and clear. In
the cage of the first group, only 3 hens were left out of nine; the
other 6 had been murdered. The 3 survivors had plucked each other
nearly to death during their incessant attacks. Egg production
plummeted of course. What happened? Selecting for the most productive
member of each cage had selected for hens that suppress the output of
the other hens in their cage. They are not super egg layers, but
rather the meanest hens. 6 generations of breeding had produced a
nation of psychopaths. In the second cage, egg production was way up.
By selecting whole groups, the farmer had also chosen to select
against aggression as well. p34
In Chicago
neighborhoods with the shortest life expectancy, women tended to
start having children at an earlier age… Homocide rates correlate
most to income inequality, not household income. Men especially
become dissatisfied when they perceive themselves as having less than
others, regardless of how much they actually have. Such an
environment rewards men to take extreme risks to obtain status.
Murder is a consequence. This leads to an unstable environment with
lower life expectancy. Women respond by taking care of immediate
needs and reproducing early. p96
Why is there a
division between cells that are designed to reproduce (germ line) and
the cells that are destined to build the body (somatic line) that
takes place early in development?
To minimize the
number of mutation producing cell division within the germ line
(that's why a baby girl is born with all the eggs she'll ever have),
and to ensure that the somatic line is selected exclusively for its
ability to enhance the fitness of the whole organism, rather than
competing to become gametes.
Why are somatic
cells designed to self destruct after a finite number of divisions?
To prevent cheating
strategies from evolving over a period of many cell divisions
Why are the rules of
meiosis so elaborate?
It is the process of
forming the germ cells (eggs and sperm). This stage of life is
especially vulnerable to differential replication, so meiosis is
elaborately designed to give each gene an equal chance at becoming a
gamete. p136
Are you calling my neighborhood a rotten log?
Ed Wilson describes
a social insect colony as a factory within a fortress, against which
solitary insects cannot compete. An ant colony moving into a rotten
log is like Walmart moving into your neighborhood: the mom and pop
businesses must go. p145
When to voice your opinion and when to tow the line
A good decision
making process begins with an alternative generating phase, followed
by an evaluation phase, leading to rejection of all but the final
decision. It is appropriate to argue for minority positions early in
the prices. Only when these same arguments are made late during
decision making phase does that person suffer a loss in status. Group
leader should also refrain from sharing their opinion early in the
process to avoid groupthink during ideation. p211
Arie Krugman and
Donna Webster
We are not fated by
our genes to engage in violent conflict.
Even though this
argument is often stated in terms of genes, it makes no sense from an
evolutionary perspective because no single behavior is adaptive
across all environmental conditions. Bloody conflict is not
everywhere. I does indeed thrive under some conditions. The Vikings
of Iceland were among the fiercest people on earth, and now they're
among the most peaceful. Same genetic stock. p285
The average person
is a facultative sociopath
We might not be
fated by our genes to engage in violent conflict, but we are prepared
by them. There is a rich anthropological, archeological, and
historical record of murder and mayhem, and ample psychological
evidence that we are hardwired to distinguish between us and them,
and to behave inhumanely at the slightest provocation. Everyone is
thus susceptible to this us vs. them reaction from our evolved
tendencies. If we want to avoid this kind of facultative sociopathy,
we need to avoid pushing the wrong psychological buttons. p286
Watch out for the
invisible hand.
There are billions
of ways for a human society to self organize. Of these, only a tiny
fraction are adaptive at the group level. The simple rules that
enable people to organize into adaptive societies evolved by cultural
and genetic group selection over a long period of time. Other simple
rules that tend to disrupt society evolved by within group
selection. The rules that exist in one society need not exist in
another. We will never understand the relatively simple rules that
cause people to self organize into adaptive societies until we study
them from an evolutionary perspective. p289
Evil aliens need not
apply
How many times have
you heard that the world would come together as one if evil aliens
descended upon us? If the earth was faced with global destruction,
some of us would surely sacrifice more than others, some would engage
rampant profiteering, some would help the aliens in an effort to save
their own skins, and so on. Increasing the scale and intensity of the
threat would not eliminate these differentials. p289
References from book:
Spicy articles: Paul
Sherman
How sensitive are
you: www.hsperson.com
Amoebas!:
dictybase.org
Why Zebras Don't Get
Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky
Becoming Adult: How
Teenagers prepare for the world of work: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
