23 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Hamilton's Model
Hamilton's rule is rb - c > 0. Here c is the cost to the giver's fitness (c fewer offspring
because of helping), and b is the benefit to the recipient's fitness (offspring gained by the recipient from the help). Here again, "r" is a measure of the relatedness between giver and the receiver
[...]
Hamilton’s rule says that for unrelated individuals (r = 0) no benefit can overcome the cost of loss of the altruist's fitness (0 - c can't be greater than 0) and aid giving is selected against...Explains why members of a species will sacrifice themselves for offspring that are not their own.
08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Evolutionary Biology and the Punk Scene
Evolutionary biology historically has focused on a particular kind of change in heritable traits. Some traits enable an organism to have more offspring than other organisms in a population. In this way, a heritable trait can become more abundant in the next generation. It's a simiple numbers game. New traits appear first in a single organism (like the debut songs on a pioneering punk album). But they can appear in increasing numbers of organisms with each :h new generation if they help organi...An interesting comparison, that demonstrates the natural selection of memes in culture works the same as genes in biological fitness.