gjm comments on Open Thread May 30 - June 5, 2016 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Elo 30 May 2016 04:51AM

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Comment author: gjm 31 May 2016 01:02:48PM -1 points [-]

It seems to me that it doesn't weigh against it very much. A genetic change that causes a not-too-big increase in altruistic behaviour towards likely kin is unlikely to hurt your chances of survival and reproduction a lot.

The first organism with the genetic change doesn't need to be exceptionally well supplied with offspring or anything. (Unless this is an r-selected species for which surviving at all is exceptionally lucky; in that case, it needs to be about as lucky as the bearer of any other not-too-dramatic genetic change has to be.)