Why cooperate? This may be the most important scientific question we have ever, and will ever face. The science of cooperation tells us not only how we got here, but also, if we are not careful, where we might end up.Cooperation is the means by which complex life arose, allowing us to move from strands of DNA to modern-day nation states. But cooperation is also fragile, and not easy to reconcile with the theory of evolution by natural selection and selfish genes. In the natural world, individuals don't tend to help other individuals; cooperating does not seem to come naturally. However, there are some outliers - and they just happen to be some of the most fascinating and extraordinarily successful species on this planet. We are among them.This book is a story about us - you and me. But it is also about them- the other species who have discovered a cooperative way of life - from the pied babblers of the Kalahari to the cleaner fish of the Great Barrier Reef. The clues to understanding our own place on Earth exist not only in comparisons with other primates but on multiple different branches of the evolutionary tree, where we find species who live, like us- together.Written at a time of global pandemic, when the challenges and importance of cooperation have never been greater, THE SOCIAL INSTINCT is a fascinating insight into what makes us human.
