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Originally posted by Sydney
Nothing suggests that individual genes are selfish and "want" to be more plentiful - it all comes down to meiosis.
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All (maybe almost all) genes in a gene pool are selfish and 'want' their survival machine to pass on its genes, possibly at the expense of other genes.
If a gene is selfish then it will become more numerous in the gene pool than altruistic genes because the altruistic genes will let their survival machines die at the expense of other survival machines with different genes.
What about parental altruism towards children, you say? Parents pass on half of their genes to their children and children are often likely to have a longer reproductive expectancy than their parents. Therefore, if a parent were altruistic towards their child then half of the parent's genes would be passed on to the next generarion.
I'm rambling now. I hope that made sense...
Advice to everybody: read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It's an excellent book.
See, Dan? Selfish gene Vs good of the species.