Cooperation and altruistic behavior play an important role in human society. The phenomenon of euphausiids provides an opportunity for altruistic people to come together and work together, but overemphasizing this can lead to a loss of diversity. Therefore, a balanced approach is needed that encourages altruistic behavior while respecting diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
Everyone is familiar with the Prisoner’s Dilemma game, which is played when two suspects of a crime are placed in a situation where they are unable to communicate with each other: if they both deny the crime, they will spend one year in prison; if they both confess, they will spend five years in prison; if one confesses and one denies, the confessed suspect will be released immediately and the denied suspect will spend seven years in prison. I’m going to use this game to talk about the “Eugenics Hypothesis” and its limitations regarding cooperative and altruistic behavior in our human society.
If you think about the prisoner’s dilemma, many people, including myself, would predict that each of the prisoners will confess. And now I’m going to talk about the situation after this game: who do you think the person who chose the strategy of cooperating with the other criminal in this game will hang out with in the next game, the person who chose the strategy of betraying and confessing, or the person who chose the strategy of cooperating? Needless to say, it would be the cooperative player, because the cooperative player has the most to gain by meeting with people who have the same strategy as him. Similarly, in our society, it would be good for the society to be maintained and prosperous if people who cooperate with each other meet, work, and organize.
Do you think the idea of a “eusocial species” of cooperative people is too unrealistic? It doesn’t have to be. We all know people who are very close to each other in terms of personality and ideas. Another good example is when you meet a group of strangers and you find yourself easily connecting with people who do similar things to you or have similar hobbies. In this way, there’s plenty of potential for similar people to “co-evolve” – in other words, altruistic people.
Furthermore, the importance of cooperation has been demonstrated throughout history. For example, during human evolution, cooperation was essential for survival and prosperity. In ancient societies, communities worked together to distribute and protect resources, which allowed them to lead more stable lives. This essence of cooperation is equally important in the modern world. Cooperation between companies, organizations, and countries today is equally important because it reduces conflict and moves us toward common goals.
So the question here is, if we could know whether a person is selfish or selfless before we get to know them, wouldn’t selfless people be able to find each other? When we get to know someone, we don’t just get to know them, we get to know them by finding out what kind of personality they have, what their hobbies and activities are, and if what they say is true. For example, when asked a question like, “Do you usually like to volunteer?” we can tell when someone is lying by the way they suddenly stutter, open their eyes blankly, or scratch their head in embarrassment. Research has also shown that there is a part of our brain that has the ability to tell when someone is lying.
In order for a society of altruistic people to be sustained, it must also be able to expel those who disrupt it: selfish betrayers are driven out and only altruistic people remain, and altruistic people have fewer opportunities to interact with selfish people, creating a good environment for altruistic behavior to evolve.
The above examples of eusociality allow altruistic people to thrive in society, but can all members of society be altruistic? Let’s say a company has a team developing a new product. If all of the members have similar ideas and desired designs, the product can be created quickly and perfected because they all think alike. This may initially get people to buy the company’s products, but over time, consumers will get tired of seeing the same style of product, and the company will lose money. In this way, partial eusociality helps spread altruistic behavior, but if everyone is encouraged to be altruistic, we will lose diversity and society will suffer, as in the example above.
As a result, while euploidy can continue to increase the number of altruistic people, there is a limit to the amount of euploidy that doesn’t harm diversity. It’s important to maintain the complexity and diversity of human society while still creating collaborative relationships. We need a balanced approach that encourages altruistic behavior, but also respects diversity and individuality, because when people with different backgrounds and perspectives work together, more innovative and creative solutions can emerge.
