The locking-in mechanisms The Honeymoon is Over Despite a paucity of evidence, I believe cooperation, reciprocal altruism, or some capacity for mutually beneficial social interactions got us through the bulk of human evolution. Many think these behaviors led to massive neurological advances, language, and the arts. Other interactions, including competition…
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The First Artificial Selection
Power becomes Hereditary Cooperation may be the cornerstone of human evolution. It is a key feature differentiating us from other life forms. Sure, some social insects, fish, birds, and even plants exhibit degrees of cooperation, but we made it the foundation of who we are. Cooperating makes us human; it…
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Inventions Other Mother
Playfulness and curiosity in Natural Selection “Necessity is the mother of invention” While we don’t know who first said it, many people have. Surely you have heard this phrase, if not used it. This quote means that urgency induces creativity. When humans need something, we search harder for solutions. It…
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A Stand of Trees Does Not a Forest Make
A system is more than its parts During my dissertation defense, I got into a mild argument with one of my committee members. He was a GIS remote sensing technologist, I was a tree-hugging hippie ecologist. The disagreement centered around how many 30 x 30 meter (this was the early…