Altruism, compassion & gratitude, an evolutionary perspective.

Transcription

1 1 Altruism, compassion & gratitude, an evolutionary perspective. Most of us have heard of Lucy. She walked upright about 3.2 million years ago. Evidence is very sparse, but we think the fully upright walking pre-human dates from about 3.5 mya (million years ago). About 2.5 mya we began making and using stone tools. We call these first humans Homo habilis, that is, 'handy man.' Then came Homo erectus, 1.9 mya. The main advance of Homo erectus over Homo habilis was brain size. We think it was the first Hominid species to migrate out of Africa around 300,000 years ago. Homo erectus stayed on as the dominant hominid for about 1.7 million years, living in clans, and developing an increasingly larger brain. Around 200,000 years ago Homo erectus got 'promoted' to the Homo sapiens species, the wise and knowing man, in other words, us. This category is further divided into archaic Homo sapiens and modern Homo sapiens, each about 100,000 years. The main change from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens was the skull shape and brain size. H. sapiens skull is like ours, our face more flat and vertical. H. erectus skulls are more slanted. And our arms and legs have become shorter, and less bow legged. Most of the progress of H. sapiens occurred in the past 100,000 years. Refined speech began about 60,000 years ago. With speech and planning came the most significant migration out of Africa, and across the world. During our 200,000 as H. sapiens we have developed highly cooperative tribal living. We divided the labor of managing the tribe, and our personal needs. This division of labor eventually evolved to genetic specialization. The 9 archetypes that evolved were: Alpha male; tribal leader; chief. Care-giver; nurturer; mother; nanny. Hunter; warrior; defender; hero. Gatherer; food manager; cook. Shaman; healer; visionary. Teacher; mentor; sage. Story teller; tribal historian. Explorer; scout; assessor of new territories. Artisan; creator; toolmaker; weapon maker; shelter builder; pottery maker; clothing maker. The division of labor promoted cooperation and trade within the tribe. And cooperation led to altruism and compassion. But in order to fully understand the cooperative nature of the tribe, we should look to its ancient roots.

2 2 The dictionary defines altruism as selfless concern for the well-being of others. But the biological implications of altruism extend further. It is concern for others that involves a sacrifice that gains something of greater value for the group than its cost. Altruism evolved with ants beginning 140 million years ago. And ant colonies offer an excellent example of unwitting altruism, There are three basic kinds, of ants: The queen, the males, and the workers, which are all sterile females, essentially slaves to the colony. The queen is confined for life in her chamber deep in the nest. She sacrifices any impulse for freedom in order to continually lay eggs, typically between 100 and 1000 per day. Queens live as long as 30 years, a long boring life. The males die shortly after mating, and don't become freeloaders on the colony. They have no other function than a single impregnation of the queen, and to eat and sleep. The female workers scout for nest locations, build the nest, maintain and clean it, take care of the babies and the queen, forage for food, and fight to protect the colony and its territory when necessary. The workers live from 1 to 3 years. The older females are the foragers. They risk their lives in leaving the safety of the nest, and are more expendable for the colony's wellbeing due to their age. So, we see that everything each ant does is unwitting, selfless concern or sacrifice for the benefit of the colony. I'm fairly sure that the male ant that is about to mate has not considered an option of celibacy. It has no idea that it is going to die shortly after the act. Such behavior has evolved to the human colony -- the clan and its successor, the tribe. A mother will face a predator, and risk her life to save her children. A brother, or even a friend, will give a kidney to another member of his community -- sometimes even to a total stranger. In the sinking of a ship, women and children go first into the lifeboats. The altruistic impulse is almost overpowering. The men who bravely stayed behind on the Titanic knew their chances of survival in the icy water were essentially nil. It's in our genes. A company of soldiers become 'brothers in arms,' almost as close as blood relations, and an individual may risk death to save one or more of his buddies, often dying in the attempt. Thus, in a sense, altruism is compelling radical compassion, wittingly or unwittingly practiced. I've said that he roots of altruism extend back as far as 140 million years, but I'm not suggesting that we evolved from ants, only that the hominid, or human, branch of the evolution tree borrowed the altruism trait from long, long ago. Compassion is a broader and less compelling instinct than altruism. We extend compassion to people we don't know, and often whom we never will know. Compassion probably arose from altruism but is more than a deeply embedded reaction. It is thoughtful and optional. We are compassionate because we are sympathetic and

3 3 empathetic, not because it is instinctual. It is a form of love for our fellow beings, both human and other. We might say that compassion was the lubricant of the tribe. A tribe of persons who were altruistic sacrificed something for the wellbeing of the tribe. A tribe that was compassionate promoted each other through friendship, and such tribes outlived those tribes whose members were selfishly inclined, thus winning the intertribal evolutionary contest. Compassion is not selfless concern for the welfare of others. It involves concern for self first, and still extending ourselves and our treasure to other beings. Compassion is not limited to humans or our tribe. It may also be applied to strangers well outside of our tribe, or to animals. It is sympathy, empathy, and charity born of concern for the interconnected web of life. In December of 2005, a whale's life was saved by divers off the coast of San Francisco. Here is the first-hand account by one of the divers named Moskito: I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it, said Moskito. I really didn t think we were going to be able to save it. About 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail, the back, and the left front flipper, and there was a line in the whale s mouth. The crab pot lines were cinched so tight, that the rope was digging into the animal s blubber and leaving visible cuts." "At least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow-hole out of the water." One of the divers said, "The whale's eye followed him the whole time, and he would never feel the same... for the rest of his life." When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. It swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one. It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free, and that we had helped it. It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit, and had some fun. It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that s happy to see you. I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience. In my opinion, the whale had expressed personal thanks. Is this not also an expression of love and spirituality between two very different species?

4 4 Some scientists would say that this interpretation is sentimental, and we are imposing human emotions on an animal. But it's actually the other way around. The whales have been swimming for the past 55 million years, about 18 times as long as we hominids. It is our traditional belief of "dominion over all living things" that gives rise to our arrogant anthropocentric superiority. When a humans saves an animal, that's not news. But when animal saves a man... that's news. There are many stories on Google.com of dolphins saving humans from sharks. Here is one: Todd Endris, a 24-year-old surfer, was practicing his favorite sport on August 28, He could not imagine that moments later a great white shark was going to wallop him and then gave him two severe bites. The terrified young man saw his death close when suddenly about 15 bottlenose dolphins appeared and surrounded him to form a barrier between him and the shark. This protection allowed Todd to get safely to the shore, although with severe wounds from which he later recovered. There is even a story of dolphins herding stranded whales back out to sea. There are half a dozen amateur videos on YouTube of animals saving animals of another species, such as a bear saving a drowning crow, a pig saving a goat, an orangutan saving a chick from drowning, 2 hippos saving an impala from a crocodile, and a lone hippo saving a zebra from a crocodile. These are not just interesting stories, but they show us dramatically that altruism and compassion are evolutionary traits, and not exclusively human. Gratitude also derives from tribal days. Altruism and compassion occur in present and future time. But gratitude may be expressed for past events as well as current. Gratitude may have arisen as simple acknowledgement of an exchange between the hunter and his recipients, or between the sick person and the shaman who healed him or her. It may have been as simple as saying, "You helped me. You are my friend." But as the trait of gratitude evolved, so did courtesy. So, we say thank you. We have become very nice, grateful, and polite people. Too many of us neglect gratitude for past gifts: The inventions of the past 200 years that have made our lives easier and more interesting. The modern automobile, for one, has given us enormous freedom. We can listen to a Beethoven symphony or Pink Floyd any time we wish. We have access to an unlimited number of books and videos. We have doctors and medical procedures that cure cancer and prevent blindness from a retinal detachment. Never mind that we pay for these things. Their value is beyond money. Free lunch, we might say. And yet, there is still something in us that is unfulfilled. I will read you what Yuval Harari, the author of Sapiens has said about our present plight:

5 5 Evolution molded our minds and bodies to the life of hunter-gatherers. The transition first to agriculture and then to industry has condemned us to living unnatural lives that cannot give full expression to our inherent inclinations and instincts, and therefore cannot satisfy our deepest yearnings. This concept of the past 10,000 years is one of the most difficult to grasp as a mature perspective. All of our written history occurred within this period. All that we know about religious and spiritual development occurred within this period. And yet, it is only 5 percent of the history of Homo sapiens -- only 10 percent of our time as 'modern Homo sapiens.' But we almost never think of the long times before recorded history. In conclusion: We have been around as modern man for a long time ,000 years. Our socialistic genetic roots go back to clan days, two or three million years ago. We are altruistic and compassionate social creatures who are compelled to live in a 'recent' agricultural and industrial society. We are all the time searching for that ancient community, our tribe, and all the while the noise, the distraction, the allure of this 'new,' this 10,000 year old mode of living has us trapped. We're stuck in it, and our best outlet for our truest social yearnings is the social unit, the tribe, the congregation we call MUUS. Let us be grateful that all of us here today were born in the last 100 years. The odds were 1000 to 1 against it if we consider ourselves to be modern Homo sapiens. As one of our new MUUS friends said to me a few Sundays ago, "We won the lottery." Yes, we did. And our expression of compassion and gratitude for the present, the future, and the past -- our compassion for each other -- is essential as our means to say, "thank you," and sometimes, I love you. TIMELINE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION (NOT TO SCALE) 2.5 m 1.9 m 1.75 m 1.5 m 750, , , ,000 10,000-now Homo Homo 1st main use of cooking clothing Homo 2nd main farming habilis erectus exodus fire sapiens exodus out trading (tool out of (archaic) of Africa villages user) Africa (modern Homo sapiens) writing meat eating speech accounting clans tribes families cc cc (gradual increase in brain capacity) cc- Jack Lander April 1, 2018