Re:Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Count...
by grzm on Tuesday January 03, 2017 @04:00AM
(#13307844)
J.B.S. Haldane, when asked if he would give his life to save a drowning brother, replied
"No, but I would to save two brothers or eight cousins."
As you share on average half your alleles with a brother and one-eighth with a cousin, Haldane was giving the number of relatives one would have to save to "break even".
As quoted in Mathematical Models of Social Evolution : A Guide for the Perplexed (2007) by Richard McElreath and Robert Boyd, p. 82;
"No, but I would to save two brothers or eight cousins."
As you share on average half your alleles with a brother and one-eighth with a cousin, Haldane was giving the number of relatives one would have to save to "break even".
As quoted in Mathematical Models of Social Evolution : A Guide for the Perplexed (2007) by Richard McElreath and Robert Boyd, p. 82;
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane
This is in relation to the idea of kin selection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_selection