Re:Survival of the Friendliest
by visarga on Saturday March 25, 2017 @12:44AM
(#13954143)
The same phrase "survival of the fittest", which was so much misinterpreted, could be fixed by adding one extra word: group, family, clan, team, company or country. "Survival of the fittest family" or "fittest group" implies both competition and cooperation to an equal measure. But I love the shock value in "Survival of the friendliest". Good title, and good to drive this point again and again through the mind of the public.
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As usual, another title selection that has been passed through the finely tuned media/techno filters for maximum shock value. Survival of the Fittest Group is actually more to the point.
Except that group selection isn't a non-controversial idea in evolutionary biology, and shouldn't be causally invoked unless you're prepared to get into multi-level selection theory, kin-selection and haplodiploidy, replicator theory, cultural evolution, etc. The idea that this is simple or obvious really needs to be resisted.