A Message from a Guildie

The rates at which Africans breed and dogs breed are quite different. You could say the dogs have reached their carrying capacity while the Africans have not.

In some environments, yes. But we could place dogs in Africa then see them multiply if they can survive long enough. I highly doubt that dogs have reached their carrying capacity if they're given the same amount of space as the Africans enjoy.

To survive, yes. However, which would you find priority over? You're pet or your neighbor? Or neither, in which case would be important if you're trying to survive yourself.

Personally, I like to look ahead into the future and see what could happen for one or some of us. If I die, so be it, history wouldn't care. But usually there would be interest in the neighbor since it's easy to collude and work together.

Do you believe that cognitive development in humans has resulted in a deterioration of the human's instinct for survival?

Probably Harrisonized, probably. I would argue that the survival instinct of society is a lot stronger, and society is what most social organisms serve first. In the events preceding the Civil War, the Union wanted to give African-Americans equal rights that nearly every other male enjoyed (sorry women, your time to shine with lady liberty came much later), and they felt that it was unjust of the Confederation to just walk away and keep on practicing slavery. (I personally didn't like how the Union didn't honor the secession clause in the Amendments) I don't know about you, Harrisonized, but some of the soldiers who fought the war put their society's values before their lives. They fought because they believed the future would be a much better place if their side won the war.

Then let's take a look at recent events. Those 9/11 hijackers probably didn't agree to hijack the planes to survive >_> They did it partly because of their religious background, and partly because America is "The Great Satan" or something to that effect. This keeps going on in the Middle East because one society (or in some cases a religious faction) believes they are better than the other. Darwinian's survival of the fittest creature just became survival of the best society/ideology.