The Moral Animal

Because slime-mold cells reproduce asexually, the r among them is 1; they are all identical twins. From the point of view of the gene, then, there is no difference between the fate of its own cell and the fate of a nearby cell. It's not surprising that many slime-mold cells fail to reproduce, and devote themselves instead to buffering fertile fellow cells from the elements. Their
neighbors' welfare, in evolutionary terms, is identical to their own. That's altruism.

Think of it: zillions and zillions of organisms running around, each under the hypnotic spell of a single truth, all these truths identical, and all logically incompatible with one another: "My hereditary material is the most important material on earth; its survival justifies your frustration, pain, even death." And you are one of these organisms, living your life in the thrall of a logical absurdity.

Still, it may be that the hallmark of the strongest, longest friendships is the depth of the shared bias; the best friends are the ones who see each other least clearly.

The virtues of this strategy are about as simple as the strategy itself. If a program demonstrates a tendency to cooperate, TIT FOR TAT immediately strikes up a friendship, and both enjoy the fruits of cooperation. If a program shows a tendency to cheat, TIT FOR TAT cuts its losses; by withholding cooperation until that program reforms, it avoids the high costs of being a sucker.

No doctrine heightens one's consciousness of hidden selfishness more acutely than the new Darwinian paradigm. If you understand the doctrine, buy the doctrine, and apply the doctrine, you will spend your life in deep suspicion of your motives.