Generosity leads to evolutionary success, biologists show

there are people in the world that believe they have succeeded in life by being better,
by being better capitalists,
by being more greedy,
by being more cut throat,
by being without compassion.

this particular subset of humans believe they are more successful than others simply because they have succeeded,
where the lesser than have failed. in some peoples minds the only different factor between their success and another failure is lack of hard work.

this subset of the population tend to think "i made it on my own"
or
"i made what i have become by simply being better or smarter or working harder"

they seam to forget that society evolved from co-operation.
in capitalism the animalistic side of the brain is feed incorrect signals,

"greed is good" is their mantra, and is wilful ignorance of the larger system that operates that they themselves are part of, called a "country", is dismissed as simply a name and not a system of co-operation.

lets use the USA as an example,
by having a society where the highest goal is the "profit incentive", there is a perverse incentive to feed the animal brain with the idea of "competition" and in the animal brain "competition" is for survival.

this holds true if we are solitary animals, where there are other animals that are directly going to try and eat our food.
but as in the wolf pack, co-operation can allow for a much larger pray animal to be hunted.

when we look to nature we see that evolution has given the greatest rewards to groups or societies that work together for common good.

what would happen to the wolf pack, if all the wolves suddenly turned on each other as "competitors"?
what would happen to the wolf society if each wolf thought,
i did that by myself?

i need no other wolf to help me succeed, even as they are part of a pack?

co-operation in human systems is what allowed humans to specialise their labour, to create technology that enabled the WHOLE of the society to progress to what we have today.

now what happens if every single human in a "country" is simply working for their own ends and needs and not the needs of the WHOLE?

we need game theory to see how "individualism" effect the WHOLE of society, and how being selfish actually hurts the WHOLE and over time is out competed by co-operation.

It quickly became clear to the Penn biologists that extortion strategies wouldn't do well if played within a large, evolving population because an extortion strategy doesn't succeed if played against itself.

Read more at: phys.org...

phys.org...

now i know what your thinking,
if every body was selfish and greedy, the entire society would collapse in no time,
while this is true, not everybody is selfish and greedy,
and in large complex system a certain number of greedy people can be "supported" by the Generosity of the selfless.

but what happens when greed is the guiding light of a (larger complex system) nation?

"The fact that there are extortion strategies immediately suggests that, at the other end of the scale, there might also be generous strategies," Stewart said. "You might think being generous would be a stupid thing to do, and it is if there are only two players in the game, but, if there are many players and they all play generously, they all benefit from each other's generosity."
In generous strategies, which are essentially the opposite of extortion strategies, players tend to cooperate with their opponents, but, if they don't, they suffer more than their opponents do over the long term. "Forgiveness" is also a feature of these strategies. A player who encounters a defector may punish the defector a bit but after a time may cooperate with the defector again.


Read more at: phys.org...

as it turns out greed or "individualism"or thinking that "i made it on my own" is making people believe that they are not part of a larger complex system, and while in some cases a small number of people can be extortionists,
in the context of a larger system, NOT EVERYONE CAN BE OR SOCIETY COLLAPSES.

so if in the wolf analogy, each wolf works independently of each other they all get LESS NOT MORE.

it is short sighted to proclaim "greed is good" because it ignores the fact that without co-operation we would have no society in which to sell our specialised labour.

"Our paper shows that no selfish strategies will succeed in evolution," Plotkin said. "The only strategies that are evolutionarily robust are generous ones."
The discovery, while abstract, helps explain the presence of generosity in nature, an inclination that can sometimes seem counter to the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest.


Read more at: phys.org...

this selfish me, me,me, attitude,
i am an individual who succeeded by myself, is not only incorrect,
but also is ignorant of the dynamic nature that co-operation plays in the larger system.

you see, if every one was a greedy as you, there would be no society at all



this greed is good mantra will be the end of society,
and those that beleive that as individuals THEY SUCCEEDED,
over the longer term will get what they want, they will be excluded and will truly have to "do it on their own"


a world where no one co-operates and all the gains of a greater society are left to rust like bridges.
and at that point any greedy will be shunned from the society that grows to co-operate again,
as in nature.

greed and selfishness brought down every empire on earth.

a tipping point is where there are more greedy people than generous ones,
its called the end of society.

xploder

very interesting. I'll be generous and give you a star and flag...doing my bit for mankind.

Originally posted by greavsie1971
very interesting. I'll be generous and give you a star and flag...doing my bit for mankind.

and i will reciprocate with a star for you,
i think you got the op perfectly

xploder

There are sooo many greedy people near where I live. Lots of British and American ex-pats. They are such a pain when it comes to getting paid for doing their gardens. Yet there are others who dont have much that will give tips and insist on making me lunch. I know who I prefer in society.

reply to post by XPLodER


Lots to say here, I commend your bravery (yes, for once I use the word without irony) in attempting to defend this line of thinking.

The crux of the argument seems to be that 'society' is the invention of government. In fact, 'government' is the invention of the society which preceded it.

Another common misconception (I think) is that ancient people were all predators and would eat their neighbors babies at the drop of a bearskin. The evidence strongly suggests that we naturally group up and cooperate to the betterment of all.

As society expanded and the group sizes became unwieldy, we were forced to conceive of systems that promised to bring about similarly fortuitous results. We are still trying.

Human nature is not evil and greedy, unaccountable systems which breed corruption and evade responsibility produce evil and greedy custodians.

I agree with you OP. I think its inevitable that we turn the economy into a cooperative game.

I wrote about it a bit here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Basically, we're physically built for cooperation. Our bones are on the inside, our skulls are thin, we bleed, break and even require psychological health to function. We couldnt have gotten here if we didnt cooperate. We cooperate ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE!

doctornamtab
I agree with you OP. I think its inevitable that we turn the economy into a cooperative game.

I wrote about it a bit here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Basically, we're physically built for cooperation. Our bones are on the inside, our skulls are thin, we bleed, break and even require psychological health to function. We couldnt have gotten here if we didnt cooperate. We cooperate ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE!

Most of us cooperate.

The rest are right wingers.