[robcohen]

Aren't there only two rules that all groups follow in the animal kingdom?

- don't lie too often

- don't kill members of the in group

Seems like these would be required for any group to survive, which makes sense why they are universal. All other rules/ethics seem to be dependent on resource scarcity.

[DrScientist]

Groups don't follow rules as such, group behaviours emerge from the interaction of individual behaviours.

As to whether all groups display those rules - I suspect not - though it rather does depend on how you define a group - the definition of group probably has some sort of colloboration built in ( as oppose to a bunch of indviduals that happen to live in the same geographic area ).

[coldtea]

>All other rules/ethics seem to be dependent on resource scarcity

That doesn't make the rest of the ethics (as a rule and mechanism) any less useful to help nurture the species and its intelligence.

It just makes them not absolute but dynamic and condition dependent. But given a condition (e.g. resource scarcity) the appropriate ethics retain the utility we talk about.