You can afford to produce more offspring if you can reliably ensure they will be well cared for by others (they are adorable) but are immune to their allure yourself. You will get rid of them and don’t have to spend resources that could be better directed at finding mates and gestating.
I get the first part. What’s the selection pressure for the second part, though? (I tried a couple times to reason it out and I’m not seeing it.)
Think Cuckoo.
You can afford to produce more offspring if you can reliably ensure they will be well cared for by others (they are adorable) but are immune to their allure yourself. You will get rid of them and don’t have to spend resources that could be better directed at finding mates and gestating.
Aaaah, okay, whoops. Of course, once everyone’s repulsed by kids, the selection pressures would change a bit.
I think he’s saying a baby laser wins on resources and heredity. Which is true, but they lose on memetic influence.
Baby laser? Nice one, I hadn’t heard that term before.