I discovered from off-list messages, that several
of you still don't understand the "selfish gene metaphor", and thus,
what kind of fundamental human behavior is selected. Do the
math. Here is another oversimplified example to illustrate the
principle.

Assume that two fundamental "genetic sets"
(strains of people) exist represented by ten pairs.
Further assume that this tribe looses 30%
of its population every ten or twenty years due to war, disease, and
famine.

Members of gene set #1 are intelligent, honest, and forward looking.
The mating pairs in this set only have two children because they know
the tribe is over carrying capacity (many die of starvation every ten
or twenty years).

Members of gene set #2 are stupid, corrupt,
chronic liars, and only care about the present.
The mating pairs in this set have an average
of ten children before the female dies.

After 20 years, set # 1 has 20 adults + 20
children = 40 members. Set
# 2 has 10 adults (females dead) + 100 children =
110 members.

A famine kills 30% of the tribe. Now, set # 1 has
only 28 members, while set # 2 has 77 members. T
This is a total of 105 tribe members.

If carrying capacity is maxed out, then set # 1
will quickly die out. If not, then the fraction of gene set #1
will continue to shrink till it encounters max carrying capacity,
then dies out.

What kind of behavior will be selected? The
behavior that puts the most genes into the next generation (if they don't
go into the next generation, they don't go anywhere).

The ancestors of everyone alive today was selected
by a process something like the one described above. We should
expect ourselves -- and those around us -- to be stupid, corrupt,
chronic liars, and only care about the present.

Next time you look in the mirror, take a close
look...

Jay Hanson