Altruism part two - George Price's theorem, an evolutionary survival trait explained by Math?

Evolution, tiny changes over billions of years explain the physical make up of our bodies, but is it also responsible for how we behave?  Can it explain compassion and kindness?

There was a mathematician, George Price, who believed that true human kindness didn't exist,  but it was nothing more than an evolutionary survival trick in which he developed an equation to prove it.

Have you ever done something truly kind or ever won a medal for your selfless act of bravery?  Suppose that someone could prove, that your so called kindness, is merely an illusion, nothing more than an accident of our evolution.... what does that say about the very nature of good and evil?

George Price lived in two worlds, one of numbers and one of people.  In the world of numbers he is a genius, but in his world of people, he is not so good.  Price travelled to London in search of a new direction, where he buries himself in many of London's libraries, reading as many science journals that he finds interesting, where he stumbles on a subject that he has never thought about before - evolution.

Charles Darwin's theory on natural selection suggests that tiny changes to our offspring, can make one more likely to survive and reproduce than another, for example, if you lived in an area where resources became sparse, and you had to climb trees to get food, those with better tree climbing skills would be able to get the food and survive whilst those others who didn't receive those tree climbing genes wouldn't be able to climb and therefore wouldn't survive.

Evolution is nothing new, but Price finds a revolutionary paper by a biologist names William Hamilton, that applies that evolution, not to the way our bodies work, but the way we behave.  So not just a physical characteristic but a social one too, that social behaviour is carried in our genes, just like hair or eye colour.  

Price wanted to know, how can self generous self sacrifice, known as Altruism, be a survival trait?  Imagine a gene that caused the ultimate self sacrifice, to give your life on behalf of somebody else, that gene will surly disappear as that individual will have no offspring, however if this gene is part of the family, this gene can be passed on, like a mother who saved her three offspring by throwing herself in front of a bus, would have a better chance of her three offspring having that same gene and passing it on.

Price looks at this with a mathematical mind, and develops a new set of equations that explains this idea where he sends his work to Hamilton.  What price comes up with isn't a theory, rather a theorem, a mathematical truth and a truth that is always right in all circumstances.  This theorem sets out to prove Hamilton's idea that Altruism, is indeed, an evolutionary survival trait. No matter how selfless a person seems, math says that genes are always in control, you may think your being generous, but in reality your behaviour is really to benefit your own genes.  

However, as Price's social skills become more apparent, as he goes out, he see's pure Altruism all around him, and wonders if these examples of human kindness can really be explained by Math, not only does he wonder, he actually hopes, he has made an error.  All he needed is one case to blow out his own theorem.  

After countless hours trying to figure it out, he turns to religion and now believes that god has created true kindness, despite all that science says, changing his whole ideas and even his own religion in order for him to show true Altruism and try and wipe out any of his past ideas.  This ultimately changes his entire life. He begins to live a very selfless life, giving away everything he possess to any body and everybody, he goes hungry and without shelter or warmth.  This new life nearly kills him and he turns to his good friend Hamilton who helps him.

He now realises that trying disproof his theorem is a hopeless cause.  No matter how selfless his acts appear, there is always the possibility that some underlining evolutionary advantage was at play.  He simply could not proof that the math was correct or incorrect.

All this was too much for him, and was found on January 6, 1975, dead, he had cut his throat with nail scissors, killed by his own theorem.  

George Price was buried in an unmarked grave in London.  Hamilton said that he had only ever seen two examples of truly altruistic behaviour, Mother Teresa and his friend, George Price.

Price's theorems remain central to modern evolutionary biology to this day.


http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Price_of_Altruism.html?id=5iy51X-70LAC