Darwin's Blind Spot

Why it’s on the list: Ryan’s case that symbiosis — cooperation between organisms, up to and including the viral and bacterial mergers that produced the eukaryotic cell — is a major engine of evolution that the competitive reading of Darwin underweights.

Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @SpencrGreenberg’s question, “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?” (June 5, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet). It was listed there as “Darwin’s Blind Spot by Frank Ryan”.

Connections

• Evolution — the mechanism under dispute.
• Charles Darwin — the blind spot in question.
• The Evolution of Cooperation — Axelrod’s game-theoretic version of the same claim, named in the same thread.
• A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.