Reproduction is not selfish. It's for species survival.
Re:Rats free each other from cages (2011)
by technothrasher on Sunday July 03, 2016 @08:59PM
(#12028393)
Reproduction is not for species survival. "Species" is simply an arbitrary label we've assigned as part of the system we use to categorize living things, and doesn't even really match reality very well.
Reproduction is for gene survival. We are simply throw away machines our genes have developed in order to propagate themselves.
No. Everything keeps transforming at each iteration for better serving the system purpose: efficiency (for this system specific set of rules).
The source code (genes) propagation per se would be completely useless to the system, without the processes they express: living systems, the most efficient energy transforming machines the system has been able to incrementally arrange up so far starting out of random stuff.
Therefore reproduction is exactly for that, for allowing the continuation of this energy transforming processes (life processes) in the most efficient way.
The rat doesn't know that...
The rat doesn't (necessarily) know it's selfless to free the other rather. He's acting on instinct. That's the question at hand:are these moral instincts, are they a shared trait with people's.
My issue is not with the results of the study, but with interpretation. I think it's possible to explain the desire to free the other rat purely in selfish terms without any nods to altruistic or empathic behavior.