Douglas_Knight comments on Group selection update - Less Wrong

38 Post author: PhilGoetz 01 November 2010 04:51PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (58)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 02 November 2010 06:22:45PM *  5 points [-]

I think most people find it easier to believe in group selection for altruism in the evolution of culture than in the evolution of organisms. For one thing, people think about culture and can change the rules, so that complex adaptations, like punishing free-riders, can appear quickly.

ETA: the evolution of multicellularity seems like a good candidate for group selection to me. Once it has been achieved, few would call it altruism or a group, but the intermediate stages probably require group selection.
I'm putting this on the comment about culture because multicellularity involves commitment mechanisms, which are like ways of punishing free-riders.