thought has been mainly ruled by the ideas of individual selectionists, who present the evolution of life as mainly a struggle for the survival of distinct genes and organisms; more recent recognition of group selection factors illustrate genes and individuals often satisfy their survival and prosperity from within the needs and demands of groups. With the rising acceptance of group selection (opposed to individual selection) theory in science and culture, a movement to openly share scientific information, technology, and debate is filling the cracks left behind science as driven by industrial and academic achievement. Interpretations of Darwin’s theory bred into scientific thought and world culture in general myriad ideas, one of which was that the concept that individuals (or their “selfish genes” as famed biologist Richard Dawkins has proposed) are in direct competition with each other; that viciousness, competition, and destructiveness were the hallmarks of the “evolutionary plan.” This skewed depiction of “survival of the fittest” often becomes a rationalization for our own behavior. The generalizations and misconceptions of evolutionary theory filter through culture, contributing significantly to our own perceptions of ourselves as rugged individualists cast into competition with one another. But just as competition has served adaptive under certain conditions, so has cooperation. The natural world is filled with examples of altruism, cooperation, and self-sacrifice that force us to question the validity of the incomplete, “selfish-survival” vision of evolution. Recent research in bacterial resistance to antibiotics indicates that, in order to survive and produce resistant strains, bacteria will group together, with certain among them sacrificing their own survival for the benefit of the group by producing chemicals which stress and weaken the bacterium responsible for their creation, but that serve as steroids for the group. Antelope and many other animals will give predator warning calls to the group when danger approaches, making the individual caller more obvious to the predator for the advantage of the group. Human history is replete with instances of cooperative behavior and self-sacrifice: from ancient, unifying spiritual and cultural traditions to Kamikaze pilots we have and continue to survive and prosper from within a group greater than the self or individual genes. Our effectiveness and abilities to harness Dominical Days 8
cooperative, restorative, and unifying coalitions will play an increasingly large role in determining the fate of biodiversity and human prosperity in the 21st century, as economic decline and environmental decimation force the emergence of novel human organizational models. Movements driven by an alternative perception of the human community as a global society desperately in need of local, readily available, free and opensource environmental and education tools are rapidly providing science and world culture with viable alternatives to contribute to novel forms of self-organizational economic and social interactions. For more info on self-organizing societies, open-source movements, and group selection theory, see: www.howardbloom.net, and www.globalguerrillas. typepad.net.
DD Dominical Days
La Revista Original de Costa Ballena The Original Costa Ballena Magazine