Blog 4 Midterm practice

I agree with topic two because with Olivia Judson and “the Selfless gene” cooperation amongst a group is better than altruism for a family member. However the underlying purpose is to get something back later in the future according to Dawkins in “the selfish gene”. This is ultimately needed for the survival of your genes thanks to others. There have been countless stories where a breed of animal takes on the responsibility for another kind of animal or of the same kind but not even related. This is also true for humans in where you see the godparent or a close friend taking responsibility for the kid, as shown in the movie “Life as we know it” with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. In this movie they are both friends and godparents of the daughter of a friend and after her parents pass away, they are left to raise her and willing do so as a way to return the favor for past actions and debts. Dawkins explains how any altruism to strangers is really just being kind a courteous because there aren’t many risks people would take for strangers unless the pay off is worth it. Instead people try to help family only and even then there is a limit to far off the family tree to go. First cousins possibly being as far as possible before altruism becomes being kind again only for the fact that they are family. Altruism only truly takes place if there are grave dangers possible or large consequences either wise it wouldn’t be such a big thing to worry about. Altruism would be taking place all the time then if it weren’t there weren’t risks.

Sharing a Research Source

I have a movie from Nova that deeply illustrates the thought processes that going into choosing a mate. Its more than simply saying you like the person but there are various things that the mind picks up on and uses to decide who the best person to partner up is. It also allows me to bring in other sources and ultimately tie everything back up together.

Blog post #3

Olivia Judson and "The Selfless Gene" seemed to be more optimistic about altruism and goes about describing about how its good for the the community if it took place because it would lead them to taking care of each other and not making everything a big fight to see who's better. On the other hand Dawkins and "The Selfish Gene:" was more pessimistic about altruism and saying that it doesn't really benefit anyone because it isn't altruism unless its for someone your related to or else it would simply be kindness and in the end you would only do it for hopes that the favor is returned. Altruism challenged Darwin's idea of evolution as altruism was more powerful because it would lead to immediate action of genes being passed on or not while with survival of the fittest it would take time for the gene to kick in and be used either wise it would be pointless and lead to the gene fading away and eventually stop existing. While both agreed that altruism required sacrifice, they disagreed on the time it should be used. Judson was more pro community and cooperation, Dawkins was more pro family and everything being gene based.

My Thesis Statement

Mating is the result of several factors taken into consideration. The result of your choices and needs result in the partner you end up with. This is shown in "The Selfish Gene" in the way that we factor in our genes over others.

Research paper focus

I thought about focusing into a deep topic in my research paper instead of generalizing it. Mating and the deeper thought process that goes into picking our mates. I need to look for a book, possibly The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawson.

Essay #2

The first topic seems to be more interesting and actually involves more of survival of the fittest and other ideas of darwin that we think of. Another reason is because altruism is displayed in many ways that we don't think of. While saving others and doing something for our kids seems to be the same in motive, being good, but in reality there is various different reasons for why they will never be the same.