The Myth of Natural Competition

Collectives Are How We Will Survive

When a neuron fires in the human brain, popular understanding would have you believe it’s engaged in a ruthless competition with other neurons for survival. Where only the strongest connections persist, while the weak are pruned away. It’s a compelling story that fits neatly into our modern narrative about competition and survival. But there’s one problem: it’s not quite right.

That neuron isn’t working alone. It’s part of an intricate dance of cooperation, where thousands of neurons synchronize their activity to create coherent thoughts and actions. Yes, some connections are pruned, but this isn’t a gladiatorial contest. Its a community deciding which paths are most useful for the whole system.

Let’s explore this from a larger perspective. When a group of children are simultaneously playing in a sandbox, conventional wisdom says they should be fighting over toys, establishing dominance hierarchies, competing for resources. But that is not what they actually do. Instead, they’re sharing shovels, collaborating on sandcastles, teaching each other new techniques for digging moats. When competition does occur, it’s usually because adults have introduced the concept, praising “winning” and creating artificial scarcity by limiting resources. Outlier children take this to another level of collaboration, a collective creative collaboration.