Explained: Survival of the Friendliest
Why it actually might be 'survival of the friendliest'. National Geographic. 2020
Review
Time and time again, we have often heard of Darwin’s well-adopted theory of the Survival of the Fittest. This video created by National Geographic created in September of last year argues that the science of evolution has got it all wrong. Vanessa Woods, Brian Hare, and Dr. Jennifer Crocker explain why friendliness has been one of the most successful factors of evolution.
Much of what I’ve written here takes directly from this video and a TEDx talk by Woods titled Survival of the Friendliest in 2016. Altruism, tolerance – are much less aggressive human-associated traits which defy the laws of nature where the smaller, friendlier creature can survive. Evolution is pretty amazing. And evolution has always walked hand in hand with external factors. When it came to the dynamic relationship between humans and animals, we had domestication and animal rearing. Which is something we have been doing for a very long time. This stresses upon the point that domestication has played a huge role in our lives ever since humans first befriended a friendlier wolf from the pack. And somewhere down the line, dogs became man’s best friend. Domestication wasn’t only for dietary needs but also meant companionship. And down this line of evolution, we have been able to develop strong bonds with animals.
If you believe in the theory of evolution, 50,000 years ago early humans started to live in very large social groups where they had to be increasingly tolerant towards one another. Whether it came to hunting, sharing food, or helping collect firewood. Friendliness, therefore, may be the key to evolutionary success.
Communicative and Cooperative = Man’s Best Friend
This is a drawing I did of Tina when she was probably around 5 months old. Small-sized puppies and animals like her are good examples of how survival of the friendliest works outs.
What later came to define the friendlier wolves of the pack was their social intelligence. This is astounding because the evolution of social intelligence meant that animals could read our body language. We didn’t have to necessarily teach them these things. And that’s how dogs came to form part of our social circles. They understand our gestures which is a crucial, evolutionary ability. A number of domesticated animals, which is particularly supported by our experience with dogs, is that they understand our intention. And what kept this process going was natural selection and reproduction. We Homo sapiens and the members of the animal kingdom hierarchy are all gifted with the weapon of reproduction. This is probably the reason why there are so many babies and puppies in the world. The ability to reproduce in nature is a much more successful strategy. And of course, one of the friendliest animals, are humans.
And I think this is just so fascinating, that my little Tina’s existence was possible because of this evolution. I think that the video covers the explanation very well, and at the same time making it very relatable to our own lives.
I would like to leave you with a piglet because they are for me, the epitome by-products of what I term “evolutionary friendliness”.
Video Source
Geographic, N. (2020, September 30). Why it actually might be 'survival of the friendliest'. Retrieved from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/09/why-it-might-be-survival-of-the-friendliest/
Comments