Saturday, August 28, 2010  Why EO Wilson’s Latest Eusociality
Paper Fails  Martin Nowak, Corina Tarnita and E.O. Wilson made
the cover of Nature this week with their article “The evolution
of eusociality.” The argument presented in the paper is that
inclusive fitness theory is an extraneous, unnecessary concept
that has failed to provide insights into the evolution of
eusociality.  Here are a few of the reasons why I think that
their argument fails:  Failure 1: In the first couple of
paragraphs, the paper guides unwary readers into accepting two
false premises; the first is that kin selection and inclusive
fitness are alternatives to “standard natural selection theory,”
and the second false premise is that altruism is synonymous with
eusociality.  Explanation: The authors confuse altruism (one
type of cooperative behavior) with eusociality. Eusociality is a
type of social organization seen in bees, ants, termites, naked
mole rats, and a variety of other critters. The sophisticated
level of cooperation exhibit