The Austrian bio-mathematician Martin Nowak of Harvard University and the scientific journalist Roger Highfield co-authored the book Supercooperators.
Just this weekend, you could read an article about his current book in the SZ. The article fascinated me. It says exactly what I believe and what I try to live in my social environment – as far as this far-from-perfect human being is capable of doing so.
I read the opposite of what quite a few – incidentally quite wise and enlightened people – keep confronting me with:
Evolution is the struggle for survival …
Only the strongest will win …
As I see it, these kinds of statements are nonsense caused by frustration. In terms of dogma, they are not far from creativism. And perhaps they are even more dangerous.
These so far absolutely common (yet evil) theses really cause me pain.
Yes, they cause me personal pain, because I believe they prevent us from ever making social progress like I would wish it.
But I also find it rather a pity because of the persons who use these arguments. How can anyone live a life that is in harmony with one’s human destiny and be content if they have such an inimical concept of the world?
Martin Novak‘ approach seems revolutionary, yet it is so simple and coherent. It says exactly what I feel and it has the potential for adding true progress to the evolutionary theory. Incidentally, my personal experience with cooperation will help you on are quite good.. I am fairly happy with my personal situation, my social environment, my achievements. And I find it hard to imagine I might have achieved the same without my (hopefully) mostly cooperative basic concept.
Well, maybe I could have better exploitet my potential – but basically, everything is just fine as it is. Consequently, I am really happy that I need not see myself as a bitter person, regardless of so many sad and bitter things happening around me. I am better able to cope with it if I follow the “cooperative concept’”.
So, why don’t you change sides in huge numbers and join the ”cooperative side of life”?
RMD
P.S.
There is also a review of the book by Martin Novak in the Sunday Book Review of the
How Evolution Explains Altruism
I strongly recommend it!
P.S.1
Here are a few citations from the SZ article that may whet your appetite:
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According to Nowak, cooperation is the driving force of evolution – without it, the earth would never have surpassed the primordial soup stage full of RNA molecules.
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The basic evolutionary formula we are all familiar with looks different from Nowak’s new concept. It consists of mutation and selection – genetic diversity results in the survival and better reproduction of those who are better adapted. That is why the history of life was considered a struggle for survival characterized by self-interest for a long time: there was no way anybody could have predicted the rise of cooperation.
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Consequently, Nowak eventually concludes that largesse, clemency and friendliness will – in the long run – be the best strategy for benefiting from cooperation.
Seen in this light, loving your neighbour is not just admirable but also rational. This behaviour is particularly obvious among humans. Humans alone have an efficient means for developing a reputation – speech. Using speech, the message that someone is particularly cooperative will quickly spread.
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(Translated by EG)
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