The birds:

The ants:

The humans:

This coming Sunday (5 pm) at the Hidmo, Pop Life will make these three steps (or moves): one, the inhabitant as the subject of the post-neoliberal moment; two, how the post-neoliberal moment is analogous to Carl Woese's pre-Darwinian world of lateral (rather than) vertical gene transfer (genes being replaced by information or memes—cultural evolution). And three, the twilight of rational choice theory and the reemergence of group selection—this part, which will be clearly explained, prepares the way for us to think about the city, cooperation, and even narration in bio-cultural terms.

The thing is to see in group selection (or neo-group selection) a reconfiguration only made possible (ironically) by the impact of or its struggle with (a struggle that almost brought its death) the biological expression of neoliberalism—rational choice theory. Group selection alone is not enough for the creation of a politics and art liberated from the long-ruling ideology of the accountable individual and the logic of self-interest. What must be removed from group selection are the roots for fascism, patriotism, and militarism. The state (the terminal point of group selection in the modern period) is militaristic, and therefore its subjects are citizen soldiers. The inhabitant, however, is not tied to such obligations. He/she can participate with others in the production of a system that has as its ground not even egoistic altruism (another form of the rational choice theory) but altruism alone.

I will also introduce the idea of niche construction.