We and all other animals are machines created by our own genes

A prominent characteristic of successful genes is their ruthless selfishness. The selfishness of genes leads to the selfishness of individuals.

In order to achieve their selfish goals more effectively, genes will also develop a kind of limited altruism under special circumstances.

selfish behavior

altruistic behavior

Group selection cannot be justified. The same order and class can be counted as a group, but they may be natural enemies.

Individual choice cannot explain altruistic behavior

Natural selection selects for stable forms and discards unstable ones

Copy DNA

Supervise the manufacture of proteins

Animals are genetic machines, storage containers and protective walls of genes.

Individual animals are similar to robots. Genes do not directly control the individual, but are controlled by program logic written in advance.

Purpose: compete for survival resources,

Attacks between different types, attacks between different individuals of the same type, and different attack modes reach a certain stability, ESS

A gene may help copies of itself that exist in other individuals

How genes identify whether copies of themselves exist in other individuals:

Related individuals have a higher probability of sharing the same genes

Calculation of kinship index, gene maximum benefit, and population average kinship

In a large group, you are friendly to individuals who are similar to you; in a small group, you are friendly to all individuals.

The impact of whether kinship relationships are easy to identify

How individual survival machines decide whether to give birth to new individuals

Animals regulate their birth rates, altruistically? Avoid excessive consumption of group resources; selfishness? Increase the number of surviving children

Parental individuals engage in family planning in order to keep their birth rate at an optimal level

Parents have preferences for their children: parental investment, altruistic investment

After a woman reaches menopause after a certain age, it is more cost-effective to invest in grandchildren (altruistic behavior of grandchildren)

Competition among peers for parental investment

Conflict over weaning time between parents and offspring, cuckoo gets more investment from adoptive parents by killing its milk brothers

Try to get your partner to give more

The essence of male and female, the difference between male and female, the different size and number of gametes

The ratio of sons to daughters and the tilt of resources between sons and daughters

Before female mating, family happiness strategies, husband strategies

Why do fish tend to have males taking care of their young?

gregarious life

Analyze the rationality of animals’ alarm calls

The social life of insects

Different species use each other, symbiosis

human, culture