for - innate connection - innate care for others - study of infants with puppets show 100% preference for compassionate play over selfish play - Youtube - Tukdam talk - An Overview Of CHM’s Work On “Well-Being And Tukdam” - Prof. Richard J. Davidson

for - book - Understanding living systems - challenging selfishness - critique - of Richard Dawkins' Selfish Gene

• Ray Noble points out a contradiction in Richard Dawkin's use of the word selfish in his "Selfish gene".
  • Unless there is purposefulness, choice and agency, there cannot be any concept of selfishness

for - Denis Noble - Ready Noble - evolutionary biology - critique of Richard Dawkins Selfish Gene theory - critique of gene centrism - book - Understanding Living Systems - human agency

summary - In this informative interview, brothers Denis and Ray Noble discuss their new book - Understanding Living Systems, and - dispel the 70 year old narrative of Gene centrism and the selfish gene as determining the high level behaviour of living organisms

for - quote - Denis Noble - quote - baby not born selfish

Religion co-evolves with the people, places, and times in which it exists. Much like human genes, it works at the level of the individual, the local group, the larger groups and communities (of both the religion itself as well as the polities around it), and when applicable at the scale of all people on the planet.

The Selfish Religion: How far might we take this religion/gene analogy with respect to Richard Dawkins' thesis (1976). Does religion act more like a gene that is part of the particular person or is it more like a virus which inserts itself? The latter may be closer as one can pick and choose a religion rather than it being a core part of their genetic identity.

(highlight: anchor only)

Meissner, D. (2021, September 27). Tensions high between vaccinated and unvaccinated in Canada, poll suggests. Coronavirus. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/tensions-high-between-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-in-canada-poll-suggests-1.5601636

ReconfigBehSci. (2021, September 18). RT @MDaware: Pandemics: Where everyone’s actions only affect themselves & their family and never anyone else https://t.co/sTfLb3aikn [Tweet]. @SciBeh. https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1439292797350080513

I do like the more positive framing of "The Cooperative Gene."

In an ever-evolving manner, humans are constantly working at shaping and reshaping ourselves.

How does our drive to have and establish identity cause us to evolve as a species? Is identity the root gene that is driving change within society? Is there an identeme (a tacit portmanteau of identity + gene) that works at both the local level as well as at the group level? How might this fit into the selfish gene theory?

Feinmann, J. (2021). How the world is (not) handling surplus doses and expiring vaccines. BMJ, 374, n2062. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2062

Luoto, Severi, Marjorie L. Prokosch, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Indrikis Krams, and Corey L. Fincher. “Editorial: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and Its Psychobehavioral Consequences.” Frontiers in Psychology 0 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.723282.

Branas-Garza, P., Jorrat, D. A., Alfonso, A., Espin, A. M., García, T., & Kovarik, J. (2020). Exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic and generosity in southern Spain [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6ktuz

By nature, humans are selfish. We're always thinking, whether consciously or not, "what's in it for me?" We deem actions that have a potential benefit to us as praiseworthy, while label unbeneficial actions as hurtful.

Reading this reminds me of some of Brad Enslen and Kicks Condor's conversations about discovery on the net.

How can one leverage selfish behaviour to the benefit of all?