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[-] Markus29@lemmy.today 2 points 4 hours ago

Altruism can actually be evolutionarily advantageous. For example, vampire bats share food with hungry individuals, and this can be reciprocated later. Insects like ants and bees have workers that give up their own reproduction to help raise relatives, thereby still passing on shared genes. Even among unrelated animals, repeated cooperation can favour altruistic behaviour.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

I don't know why you need to go farther than humanity itself to clearly demonstrate the benefits of an altruistic survival model.

Modern human health care is predicated on individuals dedicating decades of their lives to education and research before dedicating decades more to the grueling physical labor of providing health care. And yet, our 8 billion person population size is wholely predicated on the massive bump in the human survival rate where professional medical services exist.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

Yes, there's some advantage to the survival of the community, not just the genes. But, it's sort of an expensive gamble. Not just sharing with an individual that might out-compete you later, but also the energy / effort / "programming" etc. required to act in an altruistic way. That's why you sometimes see altruism in nature, but it's not the rule.

this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2026
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