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This analysis points to the source of constant conflict in human societies - of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ and more importantly of ‘us vs ‘me’. So we can define arbitrary ‘others’ and launch wars, and can even defy our own in-groups and go psychopath against our own societies! But in spite of our team-building capabilities, we always think of number one eventually.Īlso, we are not consistent in defining our groups - unlike ants who base it on strong evolutionary grounds, our cultural evolution has allowed us softer more nebulous decision-making capacities about group-formation. Just tell them they’ll be working together as a team, and they immediately start working together as a team, all the while attributing to each other a host of positive qualities like trustworthiness and competence. Of course, we have a strong tendency to do so - Experiments have shown that it is shockingly easy to elicit a sense of solidarity among a group of strangers. We are not wiling to submit our individuality for the group. So we end up with an even more organized structure than what the ants have, but have not their ultra-instincts that make it a breeze for them to keep up their ultrasociality. Ultrasociality is characterized by a full-time division of labor, specialists who do not aid in food production, sharing of information, collective defense, and complex city-states. The leap to agriculture and state societies some 8,000 years ago represented a rare but highly successful evolutionary transition to “ultrasociality,” a type of social organization seen in only a handful of species, including ants and termites. Unlike ants who evolved it genetically, over millions of years, we went part of the distance genetically, then got impatient and went on a fast-forward culturally. It is this uneasy Ultrasociality that makes human societies a tough act to pull off consistently. It is an uneasy amalgam of hypertrophied traits and needs to be propped up with care. This is due to the fact that our ‘Ultrasociality’ is not natural. The social instincts exist but our societies take them to either extremes - achieving heights of classical civilizations and also the depths of cannibalism in the same ‘civilization’.

Instead, our ‘extreme’ social traits are in fact hypertrophied versions of our instincts. However, even as they are manifestations of our basic nature, Wilson tells that they are not direct manifestations of our genetic imperatives, as it is the ‘super’ insects. Since all social structures, including political structure and religions, then evolve from this basic raw material, they are all manifestations of our basic nature. ( Further discussion of Cognitivism & Religion. To Wilson, morality, altruism, generosity, self-sacrifice and even pleasure, and all other human ‘virtues’ are evolutionary outgrowths of the structure of the human brain, which itself was evolved as a survival mechanism. "Morality has no other demonstrable ultimate function" than to keep intact the genetic material. By ‘possibilities’ he means behavioral and social options/range that has been exhibited by the many species - identify this entire range and then try to understand where the human species is situated. Even if precariously! Instead, being extra humble and situating the human emotions and social inclinations (including violence) in a larger framework of ‘possibilities,’ is what Wilson proposes to do in this book. If they are truly unique, then they are a lost cause. If we truly want to understand the human species, understanding that they form part of a continuum in nature is essential - socially, cognitively and genetically. Wilson asks us to view humans as not an completely exceptional species, in spite of their great achievements and in spite of the natural bias that arises from the fact that they are our own species. After all, we live in the ‘ Anthropocene’ now. Humans can also be included in this elite list of earth conquerors. They can only be termed as "UltraSocial”. But a few exceptional species, such as wasps, bees and ants, have taken this to the extreme and these are the species that dominate the planet today. Many animals, especially mammals, have evolved social mechanisms to aid in survival.