Generative Energy #14: Another View of Evolution (with Haidut)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdF33V5kQr8
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http://www.generativeenergy.com/main/episode14

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I haven't listened to this one yet, but I bet it'll be some fascinating stuff.

Very enjoyable podcast. I appreciate Haidut's ability to form digestible, yet concise, arguments on complex matters.

I really enjoyed this podcast, and I agree with Haidut that the Lamarckian view of evolution presents a much fuller picture than neo-darwinism.

Haidut's description of the Selfish Gene in telling the caged rats analogy (29:28) simplified Dawkin's view unfairly.

I did a brief stint in Biology at the University of Edinburgh—ironically, so did Charles Darwin—and have read Dawkins work too. Full disclosure—I don't hold a degree in Biology, I moved school and graduated in the arts. Sorry mum.

The "selfish gene" view isn't that an organism should always act selfishly, it's that the genes that produce physical attributes or behaviours that are conducive to that gene's survival are usually more successful. Or, genes are "selfish", they only care about their own survival. If that means making you act altruistically, so be it (anthropomorphizing).

Think of it like this: cooperative behaviour often has a genetic, evolutionary advantage.

Dawkins gives the example of birds who are usually infected with lice.

[*]These birds spend a considerable amount of time every day grooming one another.
[*]Any bird that is not groomed stands a high risk of becoming sick and dying from infection or disease.
[*]Each bird spends the same amount of time both grooming and being groomed per day.
[*]Any bird that spends less time grooming others, whiles still being sufficiently groomed itself, has a competitive advantage for mates and resources.

So a bird appears in the community who, for whatever reason, carries a gene that makes it less interested in grooming its peers. It spends 30% less time grooming its peers than they do it. This bird can spend more time eating and woo-ing the she-birds, and ends up fathering more young than other males. The next generation of birds contains more birds with this same genetic trait.

After a few generations, many of the birds are spending far less of their time grooming, taking advantage of those who still do.

Eventually, more birds start to get sick because of lice infestation and some die. Suddenly the scales tip, and those with the evolutionary advantage are the ones who still spend the time grooming one-another. As they are now more reproductively successful, the next generation of birds contains more birds with this same altruistic nature.

The population is never all of one or the other type. There's a mix and a balance that is also dependent on external fluctuating factors (like available food, lice control, etc.).

The point is, Dawkins argues that altruism can have a genetic advantage on the species level. Helping unrelated peers can be advantageous, especially for animals that live in large colonies (rats live in colonies in which the females are usually related). This is not the same as species selection (another theory of evolution), because it's about gene survival.

In the caged rats analogy, a "selfish gene" interpretation would be to say that those rats carry a "gene for altruism" [simplifying] because helping others that are likely to carry your genes increases the odds of your genes surviving—despite your body not necessarily being the vehicle in which they survive. To ridicule Dawkins by saying "if Richard Dawkins is right, if every organism is selfish, why would the rat release another competitor?" is analogous to cutting of mice tails to disprove Lamarck.

I'm really learning a lot from these podcasts so far guys. Thank you both!