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 heard about it

• A reply to @SpencrGreenberg — in the thread under his question “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?” (June 2025), listed as “Darwin’s Blind Spot by Frank Ryan.” The full set of replies is on A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet).

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.