evolution, justice and revenge, my son

7 june

I actually don’t know how it happened. When I started biology I wanted to learn ecology, and marine biology. I had no more than a shallow understanding of evolution. And somehow, that is what I ended up interested in. Perhaps the inertia of physics and their pursuit of theories that explain almost everything. Perhaps the charm of focusing in something that our university didn’t really offer as a research possibility. Anyhow, evolution is what I ended up studying. Besides my own work, and again perhaps fitting a leftie like me, I have always been interested in the evolution of cooperation. Never got to do any original work, but I have been always fascinated by the mutual learning in between game theory, economics and evolutionary theory.  Those three sisters have produced most of the insights on the evolution of cooperation. 

Theory says that cooperation should not happen, and that makes it interesting, because cooperation and altruism is all over the place. The key insight of evolutionary biology is that anything alive will do its utmost to pass his genes to the next generation. Any energy allocated to anything else is a waste, specially energy allocated to somebody else… since this somebody else increases then his chances of passing his own genes. The plain world of evolutionary biology is drab and egocentric indeed. And yet, altruism exist. How flawed our theory is? 

I have been thinking about this triggered by one of the few conversations between father and son that have been granted to me. Couple of hours ago my son arrived home, in between his job and going to hang with some friends, having a concerned face. I ask, and he actually answered. Some months ago somebody tried to convince a prospective girlfriend of his to steal his wallet and his cards. She did not like the idea and told my son. Nothing much happened further, but the prospective robber is still around the people that my son hangs with, and he wonders what to do. So we talked about it. In about 15 minutes we reviewed ideas and concepts that actually, gave me a headache. Non-violence, karma, retribution, justice, pay back, revenge, de-escalation, reputation and social standing. We agreed in pretty much everything, and yet the central question remained unanswered. When you own a latin temperament as we do, what to do when facing a thief and a cheat? 

My son left soon after, and I was left alone to contemplate his dilemma, or his choices. Which certainly they are not about collaboration. And then again, they are. Most of the models that we use to understand the rise of collaboration, or altruism in a group are anchored in mechanisms that permit to identify and punish cheaters. For collaboration to subsist in a group, we need that individuals that abuse collaborators are identified, and punished. And yet both my son and I agreed that perhaps we are not capable of taking it, but the wise choice was leaving the cheater unmolested. It did not seem worth the effort to go into a confrontation. 

And then, here I am, on my own a couple of hours later and pondering papers and models that I have read in my academic adventures, wondering if that choice, the smart one, certainly the non-violent one, is not a choice that actually rips away the fabric of our society. 

I guess I will have to pick that conversation with my son again.