Well, I thought I had explained it pretty well, but here goes in a more succinct fashion:
A new mathematical analysis by E.O. Wilson and two colleagues indicates that kin selection is not required to produce observed behavior. Now, since the theory of kin selection was posited by E.O. Wilson and he is not saying something is impossible but rather that the theory is unnecessary, I'd tend to give it a fair bit of weight. We'll see what the counter arguments from other folks end up being. Judah On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 12:09 PM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: > > Old issue. It doesn't matter if Wilson agrees or disagrees with > kin-selection. Does the current theory adequately explain the data or > does his new view provides a more thorough explanation. This case > reminds me of Clarke's first law: > > When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is > possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something > is impossible, he is probably wrong. > > > On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I haven't had the time yet to go through the underlying papers but >> E.O. Wilson founded the discipline of Sociobiology and has serious >> cred. One of the big things that Sociobiology brought about was the >> notion of kin selection, that is that closely related organisms may >> behave altruistically to benefit their relatives because their >> relatives are likely to carry a large portion of the same genes that >> the altruistic individual has. Wilson now seems to claim that kin >> selection is not necessary as a theory and that altruistic behavior >> can be explained with standard natural selection. >> >> Big stuff if you're into evolutionary biology. >> >> http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/2010/08/26/e-o-wilson-says-a-key-theory-underlying-sociobiology-is-wrong-2/ >> >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:325963 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
