re: #177 b_sharp

Dude, the selfish gene is NOT about genes promoting selfish behavior. The selfish gene is a book that argues that the gene, not the individual, is the level of selection. It’s true. It has nothing to do with what we’re talking about. Both selfishness and altruism can be genetically coded.

If all you’re talking about is the explanation for altruism being kin-related, that existed long before the Selfish Gene; what the Selfish Gene did was show that a genetic trait like altruism could encourage self-replication even across otherwise very genetically distinct individuals.

If you have a gene that codes for “help others who you see helping others”, then that gene is only looking for that, not for the kinship. Likewise, it would also result in a benefit to a gene coding for “help others”, which means those genes would be selected for— again, even if there’s no kinship relationship there.

That specific behavior would have nothing to do, for example, with the 100 person group you cited above; it’d be a rule that would violate that boundary, providing a way to act altruistically to strangers with no kinship.