From Plus, does it pay to be nice? Rachel Thomas on the maths of altruism (and part 2). Frans de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of moral traits all of us share. A review of Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame by Christopher Boehm. Selfishness beats altruism within groups, altruistic groups beat selfish groups — everything else is commentary. Richard Dawkins reviews The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O Wilson (and a response by David Sloan Wilson; and more and more). From Edge, Steven Pinker on the false allure of group selection (and responses by Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse and Ryan McKay, Michael Hochberg, Herbert Gintis, and Jonathan Haidt). Scientists develop new theoretical model on the evolution of cooperation. A review of Wired for Culture: The Natural History of Human Cooperation by Mark Pagel. Evolution, humanism, and conservation: An interview with Richard Leakey. A new “species” from China? The days of ancestral line drawing, with one typological species begetting another typological species, are over. Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed — could we be mid-upgrade now? Erin Wyman on four species of Homo you've never heard of.
