Life is inherently cooperative
Apr 17, 2005 Dov, in biologicalEvolution forum
In Scientific American, April 2005, "How animals do business",F.B.M. de Waal traces and illuminates aspects of specific animals' inter-relationship.
The Scientist, October 6, 2003, "Microbial Co-op in Evolution", reviews observations of microbial cooperation in evolution:
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2003/oct/research2_031006.html
It is appropriate to bear in mind that all aspects of organisms' inter-cooperation are at the base of life's evolution and are an expression of the evolutionary process towards ever higher organisms' complexity. It started between individual genes, forming and elaborating cooperative genomes communes associations.
Life has always been and still is a fractal affair, repetition of phenomena on ever more complex scale. It cannot be otherwise, it evolves.
And surviving-proliferating life has always been a cooperative affair since cooperation is most successful for overall survival/proliferation.
Dov