LW - The Fragility of Life Hypothesis and the Evolution of Cooperation by KristianRonn

The Nonlinear Library

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The Fragility of Life Hypothesis and the Evolution of Cooperation, published by KristianRonn on September 5, 2024 on LessWrong.
This part 2 in a 3-part sequence summarizes my book (see part 1 here), The Darwinian Trap. The book aims to popularize the concept of multipolar traps and establish them as a broader cause area. If you find this series intriguing and want to spread the word and learn more:
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In Part 1, I introduced the concept of a Darwinian demon - selection pressures that drive agents to harm others for personal gain. I also argued that the game theory of our evolutionary fitness landscape, with its limited resources, often favors defection over cooperation within populations. Yet, when we observe nature, cooperation is ubiquitous: from molecules working together in metabolism, to genes forming genomes, to cells building organisms, and individuals forming societies.
Clearly, cooperation must be evolutionarily adaptive, or we wouldn't see it so extensively in the natural world. I refer to a selection pressure that fosters mutually beneficial cooperation as a "Darwinian angel."
To understand the conditions under which cooperative behavior thrives, we can look at our own body. For an individual cell, the path to survival might seem clear: prioritize self-interest by replicating aggressively, even at the organism's expense. This represents the Darwinian demon - selection pressure favoring individual survival.
However, from the perspective of the whole organism, survival depends on suppressing these self-serving actions. The organism thrives only when its cells cooperate, adhering to a mutually beneficial code. This tension between individual and collective interests forms the core of multi-level selection, where evolutionary pressures act on both individuals and groups.
Interestingly, the collective drive for survival paradoxically requires cells to act altruistically, suppressing their self-interest for the organism's benefit. In this context, Darwinian angels are the forces that make cooperation adaptive, promoting collective well-being over individual defection. These angels are as much a part of evolution as their demonic counterparts, fostering cooperation that benefits the broader environment.
Major Evolutionary Transitions and Cooperation
This struggle, between selection pressures of cooperation and defection, traces back to the dawn of life. In the primordial Earth, a world of darkness, immense pressure, and searing heat, ribonucleic acid (RNA) emerged - a molecule that, like DNA, encodes the genetic instructions essential for life. Without RNA, complex life wouldn't exist. Yet, as soon as RNA formed, it faced a Darwinian challenge known as Spiegelman's Monster.
Shorter RNA strands replicate faster than longer ones, creating a selection pressure favoring minimal RNA molecules with as few as 218 nucleotides - insufficient to encode any useful genetic material. This challenge was likely overcome through molecular collaboration: a lipid membrane provided a sanctuary for more complex RNA, which in turn helped form proteins to stabilize and enhance the membrane.
Throughout evolutionary history, every major transition has occurred because Darwinian angels successfully suppressed Darwinian demons, forming new units of selection and driving significant evolutionary progress. Each evolutionary leap has been a fierce struggle against these demons, with every victory paving the way for the beauty, diversity, and complexity of life we see today.
These triumphs are...