
The Elusive Calculus of Insects’ Altruism and Kin Selection - scottie_m
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-elusive-calculus-of-insects-altruism-and-kin-selection-20180410/
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GW150914
_Ants, termites, and some bees and wasps live in highly organized colonies in
which most individuals are sterile or forgo reproduction, instead serving the
select few who do lay eggs. Yet such behavior seemed to clearly violate the
concept of natural selection and survival of the fittest, if “fittest” means
the individual with the greatest reproductive success._

Right, but it’s your genes that are trying to propagate, and how genetically
similar are a colony of ants? If collective success still alllws your genes to
spread, it’s a win. Given that social insects in a colony share the same
“mother” we’re talking about huge group incentives. When you consider how few
insects even reach maturity, never mind reproduce, it starts to make a lot of
sense to me.

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stevenwoo
The entire article seems to be a longer version of the discussion of the same
issue in the book for non scientists, The Selfish Gene, except for the
discussion about the genetic formula/hypothesis used to explain the social
insects being unprovable or may be even tautological.

