Re: Sociobiological Concepts

From: alexandra beck (aeb195@soton.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Oct 13 1997 - 15:36:55 BST


The Selfish Gene

O.k. I haven't read all the book but so far I have gathered that we
are all machines created by our genes. Genes are selfish, they have
to be in order to survive and exist in the next survival machine
(us). Consequently genes outlive their survival machines.
Genes also want the best for their survival machine in that genes need
to continue onto the next generation and therefore, need to reproduce.
Aggression may not be the most optomistic way of doing this as it has
high costs. Ess, includes a variety of complex behaviour which are
non aggressive. Ess is a strategy that can't loose ( Read the others e
mail ).

Kin selection is helping close relatives with some of the same genes
as you have to evolve i.e. allowing copies of the same genes to
continue. This will occure maybe even with some cost to yourself.
As females produce fewer gametes they take more care over them than
males do. Males seem more intrested in increasing the number of their
genes in the next generation.

This is as far as I have got. I found the chapter on altruism quite
confusing. Does the book go on to describe game theory as this seems
important.



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