In this chapter Dawkins explains that in any case of individuals working together they must gain more then they put in. In herding all creatures are trying to minimize their zone of danger by flocking with other animals so that their companions are closer to areas where predators could be lurking then they are. Birds give warning calls, which seems to be altruistic, but its actually to increase their likely hood of survival. They want to run for cover but if they run by themselves they will easily be picked out and eaten. They must run for cover but assure that everyone else runs to so that they can be lost in the crowd.
Social insects are much more intensely organized and altruistic but that is because they have one reproducer that they're all protecting. Each individual worker is sterile and therefore uninterested in their own survival, only the good of the collective.
Survival machines do not group for the good of the group, but for the good of themselves. Even members of different species will cooperate if they have more to gain from the grouping then they give.
Wouldn't it have been easier to evolve flaming breath or acid spit?
ReplyDeleteWell there are species you could consider having acid spit, both scorpions and flies spit up a digestive fluid which is certainly effective. Fire breath would obviously be extremely beneficial but we'd have a problem there of "irreducible complexity." Its such a complicated system its hard to imagine how it would evolve through natural selection.
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