Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk
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Friendliest,’ not fittest, is key to evolutionary survival, scientists argue in book
Masisi, an orphan bonobo at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Congo, holds the ear of Mistique, the village dog. (Vanessa Woods)
By Marlene Cimons
July 20, 2020 at 5:00 a.m. MDT
British naturalist Charles Darwin got it right, but maybe we got Darwin wrong.
Most people assume that Darwin was talking about physical strength when referring to “survival of the fittest,” meaning that a tougher, more resilient species always will win out over its weaker counterparts. But what if he didn’t mean that at all?
Scientists Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, both researchers at Duke University’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, believe something else has been at work among species that have thrived throughout history, successfully reproducing to sustain themselves, and it has nothing to do with beating up the competition.
Their new book, “Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity,” posits that friendly partnerships among species and shared humanity have worked throughout centuries to ensure successful evolution. Species endure — humans, other animals and plants — they write, based on friendliness, partnership and communication. And they point to many life examples of cooperation and sociability to prove it.
“Survival of fittest, which is what everyone has in mind as evolution and natural selection, has done the most harm of any folk theory that has penetrated society,” Hare says. “People think of it as strong alpha males who deserve to win. That’s not what Darwin suggested, or what has been demonstrated. The most successful strategy in life is friendliness and cooperation, and we see it again and again.”
“Dogs are exhibit A,” he says. “They are the extremely friendly descendants of wolves. They were attracted to humans and became friendly to humans, and changed their behavior, appearance and developmental makeup. Sadly, their close relative, the wolf, is threatened and endangered in the few places where they live, whereas there are hundreds of millions of dogs. Dogs were the population of wolves that decided to rely on humans — rather than hunting — and that population won big.”
In nature, for example, flowering plants attract animals to spread their pollen, forming a partnership that benefits both. “The plants provide food and energy, while the animals provide transportation for the pollen,” Hare says.
Before focusing on dog studies — Hare founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center — Hare and Woods studied bonobos, apes that are often confused with chimpanzees. But bonobos actually are quite different from chimps.
Chimps make war — males take charge — and can be quite violent, even killing one another. Bonobos, on the other hand, are governed by females, don’t kill one another and engage in sex to maintain a peaceful collective temperament. Bonobos also are natural sharers. They enjoy sharing food with other bonobos, and never outgrow their willingness to do so, unlike chimpanzees, who become more selfish in adulthood.
“The friendliest male bonobo is more successful than the unfriendliest chimpanzee,” Hare says, referring to reproduction. “The most successful bonobo males have more offspring than the most successful alpha male chimpanzees”
For humans to continue to evolve successfully, he says, “friendliness is the winning strategy. Social problems require social solutions. The secret to our species’ success is the same as it is with dogs and bonobos. We are the friendliest human species that ever evolved, which has allowed us to out compete other human species that are now extinct. When that mechanism is turned off, we can become unbelievably cruel. When it is turned on, it allows us to win. We win by cooperation and teamwork. Our uniquely human skills for cooperative communication can be used to solve the hardest social problems.”
Masisi, an orphan bonobo at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Congo, holds the ear of Mistique, the village dog. (Vanessa Woods)
By Marlene Cimons
July 20, 2020 at 5:00 a.m. MDT
British naturalist Charles Darwin got it right, but maybe we got Darwin wrong.
Most people assume that Darwin was talking about physical strength when referring to “survival of the fittest,” meaning that a tougher, more resilient species always will win out over its weaker counterparts. But what if he didn’t mean that at all?
Scientists Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, both researchers at Duke University’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, believe something else has been at work among species that have thrived throughout history, successfully reproducing to sustain themselves, and it has nothing to do with beating up the competition.
Their new book, “Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity,” posits that friendly partnerships among species and shared humanity have worked throughout centuries to ensure successful evolution. Species endure — humans, other animals and plants — they write, based on friendliness, partnership and communication. And they point to many life examples of cooperation and sociability to prove it.
“Survival of fittest, which is what everyone has in mind as evolution and natural selection, has done the most harm of any folk theory that has penetrated society,” Hare says. “People think of it as strong alpha males who deserve to win. That’s not what Darwin suggested, or what has been demonstrated. The most successful strategy in life is friendliness and cooperation, and we see it again and again.”
“Dogs are exhibit A,” he says. “They are the extremely friendly descendants of wolves. They were attracted to humans and became friendly to humans, and changed their behavior, appearance and developmental makeup. Sadly, their close relative, the wolf, is threatened and endangered in the few places where they live, whereas there are hundreds of millions of dogs. Dogs were the population of wolves that decided to rely on humans — rather than hunting — and that population won big.”
In nature, for example, flowering plants attract animals to spread their pollen, forming a partnership that benefits both. “The plants provide food and energy, while the animals provide transportation for the pollen,” Hare says.
Before focusing on dog studies — Hare founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center — Hare and Woods studied bonobos, apes that are often confused with chimpanzees. But bonobos actually are quite different from chimps.
Chimps make war — males take charge — and can be quite violent, even killing one another. Bonobos, on the other hand, are governed by females, don’t kill one another and engage in sex to maintain a peaceful collective temperament. Bonobos also are natural sharers. They enjoy sharing food with other bonobos, and never outgrow their willingness to do so, unlike chimpanzees, who become more selfish in adulthood.
“The friendliest male bonobo is more successful than the unfriendliest chimpanzee,” Hare says, referring to reproduction. “The most successful bonobo males have more offspring than the most successful alpha male chimpanzees”
For humans to continue to evolve successfully, he says, “friendliness is the winning strategy. Social problems require social solutions. The secret to our species’ success is the same as it is with dogs and bonobos. We are the friendliest human species that ever evolved, which has allowed us to out compete other human species that are now extinct. When that mechanism is turned off, we can become unbelievably cruel. When it is turned on, it allows us to win. We win by cooperation and teamwork. Our uniquely human skills for cooperative communication can be used to solve the hardest social problems.”
TIL 
Or if they were crab claws.
Ferocitus
Deity
TIL that the first global manhunt started on 9/11!!!!!
1695. And also that pirate ships sometimes had really hardcore names.
Steven Johnson, The Enemy of All Mankind: A true story of piracy, power and history's first global manhunt. (2020).
1695. And also that pirate ships sometimes had really hardcore names.
Steven Johnson, The Enemy of All Mankind: A true story of piracy, power and history's first global manhunt. (2020).
I finished that book a few weeks ago. It is a great story and well written too.
TIL: Wind is what limits climbers wanting to summit Everest to May and June. I had always assumed it was snow and cold at other times. 
Berzerker
Deity
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ricas-us-human-story-prehistory-a9632161.html
Humans in Mexico 30,000 BC...and they had shared DNA with Melanesians
We'll see, so many of these bold claims have fallen flat. The thought is people hugged the coastline and island hopped around the N Pacific rather than some epic oceanic voyage
Humans in Mexico 30,000 BC...and they had shared DNA with Melanesians
We'll see, so many of these bold claims have fallen flat. The thought is people hugged the coastline and island hopped around the N Pacific rather than some epic oceanic voyage
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Super duh if you go to Central America, that people got there by boat a long, long time ago.
Well, wind does make a warm day much colder, if it's a fast-blowing one. A day in winter here that's -15C isn't that bad if there's no wind to speak of. But get the wind blowing, and it feels much colder - can get to the point where frostbite can happen if you're out for just a few minutes and have exposed skin.TIL: Wind is what limits climbers wanting to summit Everest to May and June. I had always assumed it was snow and cold at other times.
It's a very unpleasant sensation to feel ice and fire and numbing and tingling, all at the same time. Actually, unpleasant doesn't begin to cover it when it's really cold. It just plain hurts.
BBC Earth had a documentary a couple of weeks ago about the teams of people who mark the trails and lay down the ladders across the crevices for the climbers. The documentary was following one specific individual and mentioned that the avalanche that killed a bunch of them happened to be when this particular individual had time off, so he wasn't on the mountain that day.
Of course the next big mountain-climbing feat will be when somebody tries to be the first to climb Olympus Mons on Mars...
So, Marie Curie was the first woman to get a Nobel price, 1 of 4 persons who have received 2 Nobel prices, and 1 of 2 people to receive 2 Nobel prices in 2 different categories.
TIL that she had a daughter, Irene Curie, who also won a Nobel in chemistry.
Well, let's talk about good genetics there.
But that must have sucked for her at the end horribly. Just imagine you win a Nobel, and you can't say that you're the smartest person in your family. In fact, you own only the minority of all Nobels in this family
. I wonder if she had a raging inferiority complex 
.
TIL that she had a daughter, Irene Curie, who also won a Nobel in chemistry.
Well, let's talk about good genetics there.
But that must have sucked for her at the end horribly. Just imagine you win a Nobel, and you can't say that you're the smartest person in your family. In fact, you own only the minority of all Nobels in this family
. I wonder if she had a raging inferiority complex .
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Nobel "price"?So, Marie Curie was the first woman to get a Nobel price, 1 of 4 persons who have received 2 Nobel prices, and 1 of 2 people to receive 2 Nobel prices in 2 different categories.
TIL that she had a daughter, Irene Curie, who also won a Nobel in chemistry.
Well, let's talk about good genetics there.
But that must have sucked for her at the end horribly. Just imagine you win a Nobel, and you can't say that you're the smartest person in your family. In fact, you own only the minority of all Nobels in this family
Synobun
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I'm sure you can figure out what letter the "c" is meant to be.
I was addressing The_J.
Synobun
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You were trying to mock his English skills, yes.
Ajidica
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But you like to take offence at people making posts that are not related nor addressed to you in any way whatsoever, so this sounds like double standards to me. And if you're going to reply do so here instead of insulting me via PM again.
As I said, I was addressing The_J.
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