Alterity, the Trick that Builds Up a Human Society: The Day that Tomasello Met Economics—A Concept Paper

Space Odyssey 2001: Or Why Tomasello Thinks Those Apes Could Never Build A Satellite

A rocky, deserted place. Few apes wondering around and joggling into what seems to be an incoherent organisation. In the next “days”, one grabs a stick and starts using it as a war tool. His group imitates the action and so the battle emerges, armed apes at one side and unarmed at the other. Too soon to understand the power of the stick, the unarmed apes collapse under the hit. And so some die before learning. Consequently, the rest remained alive capitulate and learn the trick. And that’s pretty much how it goes, this evolution thing. The survival of the best or, in Darwin’s own words, of the fittest (Delamoir, 2009). And, if plants, fish and animals get around smoothly due to the colour of their layouts or the built-in “weapons” as poison or endurance, the more evolved species had benefited both of the natural ruling above their environmental fellows and of the limitations that a bigger brain and weaker body brought to their biped posture. Consequently, when prodders threaten primates, “the fittest” becomes “the smartest”, as inventiveness, cooperation, discovery, environment manipulation or artefacts are evolutionary ways to compensate the body weaknesses. From these facilities to highly organised social networks the steps succeed rapidly, once the foundation for cooperation has been tuned-in.