Anon.  wrote or quoted:
> Tim Tyler wrote:
> > Jim McGinn  wrote or quoted:

> >>>That doesn't mean that Jim and John are wrong - that is 
> >>>for the reader to decide - but it does mean that they have
had plenty of 
> >>>opportunity for making their views known.  So blaming the continued 
> >>>acceptance of Hamilton's rule on some fault in the
peer-review process is 
> >>>Hamilton's rule is accepted because the majority of scientists who 
> >>>have taken a hard look at it think it has some validity.
> >>
> >>Some validity?  What does this supposedly mean?  
> >>Either it is valid or it is invalid.  Sounds like 
> >>nothing more than an excuse for vagueness.
> > 
> > It could be a reference to the fact that Hamilton's rule
> > assumes that the relatedness of the actors is known to
> > the participants - whereas in nature, that condition
> > is rarely met exactly - and usually there is some measure
> > of uncertainty which causes a mismatich between relatedness
> > and percieved relatedness.
> 
> Actually, Hamilton's rule doesn't need the actors to know their 
> relatedness, only that the altruistic behaviour is more likely to help 
> an individual who has a higher relatedness (and then of course that the 
> inequality holds). [...]

The mismatch between actual relatedness and percieved relatedness is
implicated in the predictions made by Hamilton's rule.

Organisms actually operate on the basis of percieved relatedness, 
percieved cost and perceived benefit.

These can be different from the values that appear in Hamilton's rule.

As a consequence organisms can behave in ways that appear to be
contradicting the dictates of Hamilton's rule - under some
circumstances.

For example, in the case of cuckoos - where an organism willingly
helps a non-relative at substantial expense to themselves.
-- 
__________
 |im |yler  http://timtyler.org/  tim{at}tt1lock.org  Remove lock to reply.
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 11/29/04 9:35:38 PM