[quote]Regular Gonzalez wrote:
orion wrote:
Makavali wrote:
orion wrote:
Makavali wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Assuming people act in their own self-interest, then gay people may not act in the interest of straight people.
Actually, most animals act in the interest of the species. Self-interest is more a subset of that primary goal.
No they don´t or they would not kill other offspring to replace them with their own.
Even cute dolphins do that.
As un-PC as this may sound, if the other offspring can be killed so easily, then they are probably weak genetic stock and would have been taken out by other predators anyway. All they are doing is improving the gene pool.
I’d say that’s improving the species odds.
Either that, or it’s a genetic fuck-up, noting that a lot of animals live within societies, and others don’t.
It is neither.
Puppies are weak and as long as they are young their mothers cannot or will not conceive from the dominant dolphin/lion, whatever that has just killed or chased away the previous dominant male.
So, by killing the offspring of their predecessors the females can get pregnant with the new alpha males offspring sooner, which saves valuable time, because, after all, who knows how long the new Alpha Male will remain in that position.
That leads to the conclusion that a lion is not so much concerned with helping his species along but to produce as much copies of his own specific lion genes as possible.
Group selection simply does not fly.
The fact that the lion was able to chase away or kill the previous dominant male likely means that he is genetically superior. It is in the best interests of the species that the mother immediately focuses on producing his genetically superior offspring rather than those of the previous male.
You are right that the lion does not care about helping his species. The results of his actions though are in fact inadvertantly in the best interests of the species.[/quote]
If you have to make that argument it would work better if you said that, though a lions time in the sun will end without exception, it lasts longer if he is genetically better suited to the task,hence more offspring. Even super-lions grow old though and their still superior puppies die with them.
Where it all falls down of course is that a lions genes will happily mutate into another species if it suits them, so they will only work “in the best interest of the species” when it suits them which it very often doesn´t. The whole concept of species is flawed when it comes to evolutionary biology anyway.
There also is no reason why genes should cooperate with anything outside the bodies they use to procreate, unless it helps them in some way. They only cooperate inside a body because they share only one exit into the next generation, the gametes, so even that cooperation is a forced uneasy alliance.
There is simply no conceivable way how and why genes would cooperate on a group or even species level, if they do anyway, it is a coincidence.