Interesting. Oren Harman is author of
The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness.
The Price of Altruism
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RSA Keynote
6th Sep 2011
Survival of the fittest or survival of the nicest?
Since the dawn of time man has contemplated the mystery of altruism, but it was Darwin who posed the question most starkly. From the selfless ant to the stinging bee to the man laying down his life for a stranger, evolution has yielded a goodness that in theory should never be.
Academic and author Oren Harman visits the RSA to tell the moving story of the eccentric American genius George Price, who strove to answer evolution's greatest riddle. Different and driven to succeed, Price was a gifted polymath with a Zelig-like ability to be part of much of the seminal science of the twentieth century. But it was tackling Darwin’s great mystery where he finally made his most dramatic discovery.
Ultimately a homeless recluse, he had caught a glimpse of a deep and scary truth about humanity. From the heights of the Manhattan Project to the inspired, soul-shaking equation that explains altruism, to the depths of homelessness and despair, Price's life embodies the paradoxes of Darwin’s enigma. His tragic suicide in a squatter’s flat, among the vagabonds to whom he gave all his possessions, provides the ultimate contemplation on the possibility of genuine benevolence.
Chair: Matthew Taylor, chief executive, RSA
Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #RSAaltruism
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