Science would like to tell you that it’s a dog eat dog world.

But the truth is, they’re wrong.

At least partially….

All organisms, from amoebas to zebras, use cooperation as a driving force of life.

This is how awareness and consciousness builds itself.

You can have a single cell, with it’s awareness, but in order for its awareness to expand.

It must become multi-cellular and depend on other cells for expansion.

Just like one human’s awareness expands with more humans.

Society is very much like that and I think that some social media platforms like X arephenomenally positioned to be the catalyst for change.

I’m going to summarize a study on cooperators and defectors

To understand what makes people work together.

While Darwinism believes that natural selection is survival of the fittest and a competition for life…

It leaves out the other half.

That cooperation alongside competition is how life thrives.

The study goes like this.

Cooperators vs Defectors

They created a simulation (applies to organisms too).

With a random distribution of defectors and cooperators — where each round the winners would go on to produce offspring.

As simulations continued over generations, the offspring would follow their parents strategy…

Up until a point.

Then they would defect.

And within a few generations.

All individuals in a population would defect every round of the game.

Until suddenly a new strategy emerged…

And players would replicate this new strategy and begin cooperating by mirroring their opponents moves.

Tit-for-tat.

This then led to communities of cooperators.

Eventually, the cooperation strategy would evolve to more generous strategies.

It would become less tit-for-tat and methods of forgiveness would take hold.

Where players could overlook the occasional mistake.

This led to four other cooperation styles

Why We Help

1SPATIAL SELECTION — Neighbors tend to help one another (like social network).

So in populations with patches of cooperators, these helpful individuals can form clusters and then can grow and thus prevail in competition with defectors.

2GENETICS — In this situation individuals make sacrifices for their relatives because those relatives share their genes.

3INDIRECT RECIPROCITY — This is when individuals help others based on the other persons reputation.

Those with a reputation of assisting others who fall on hard times, will find themselves receiving that reciprocity from someone else in the future.

It’s a “I’ll scratch your back and someone else will scratch mine approach.”

4GREATER GOOD — These individuals perform selfless acts for the greater good. Instead of helping a single person they are motivated by the common good.

— –

Amongst these, humans seem to favor indirect reciprocity the most.

With language, names and information sharing. We are obsessed with who does what to who and why.

People were also more generous when they could make their contributions more public rather than anonymously.

When their reputation was on the line.

The Future of Social Media

Many of those who are on social platforms are defectors in a way.

While the mainstream might be making dancing videos.

There are small groups who are pulling together as cooperators.

Who are going against the grain and pushing new narratives.

It could be suppressed narratives, unpopular narratives, but ultimately…

Narratives that many need to hear.

Building public reputations in spaces and communites, and sharing their thoughts.

This trend will continue, and it will attract more people who want to cooperate.

Until eventually, it breaches into the mainstream as more and more defectors are pushed out.

Those with reputations of hurting others will be outcasted in favor of cooperation and reputation.

This is where the phrase…

“Be the change you want to see in the world” comes from.

Because humans help other humans who cooperate.

I don’t know what you’re doing here are Medium, or other platforms…

Or what your motives may be…

But what I do know.

Is many of you might be here to see a change.

Looking for your tribe…

Who will cooperate towards that vision.

They’re out there.

And if you haven’t found them…

Just keep looking.