Epilogue: The Human Super Organism

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the book and points out that cooperation is not something beneficial in itself, but needs to be understood in order for its negative aspects to be harnessed. The central idea is stressed, that all cooperation benefits the copying of the replicators-genes or memes. As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races. Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man (1871) Every one of us, in both body and mind, is made up of conglomerate upon con-glomerate of cooperating units, from the inside out, layer upon layer. Genes are the base. Life's most basic building blocks contain not only the bauplan of every organism, but also life's most fundamental instruction: COPY ME. From this initial molecular directive evolved the diversity of life. Cooperation between genes, directing such self-replication, is not only basic to life; it can reasonably be posited that this cooperation for self-replication is the best definition of life we possess. Without this cooperation for self-replication, evolution would not be possible, metabolism and energy circulation would not be needed, and the ability to register ambient conditions would be unnecessary. Self-replication creates order from disorder by repeating the same instruction over and over, driven by the continuous absorption of order from the environment (in the shape of sunlight or other life). Cooperation is thus one of life's most fundamental processes. Better cooperation between genes means better copying of these genes. Instructions that are advantageous in one environment (e.g. sharp fangs) do not work well in an organism with other life conditions (e.g. herbivory). How well genes succeed in being copied therefore largely depends on how compatible the genes' products are-on how well genes interact with other genes. Changes in any feature are tested continually by natural selection. Success is measured by the degree in which genes conveying instructions for the changes