The Evolution of Cooperation insects, where the workers – which are sterile, and therefore incapable of passing on their genes – benefit the queen, who is essentially passing on copies of "their" genes. This is further elaborated in the "selfish gene" theory of Richard Dawkins, that the unit of evolution is not the individual organism, but the gene. (As stated by Wilson: "the organism is only DNA's way of making more DNA.") However, kinship selection works only where the individuals involved are closely related; it fails to explain the presence of altruism and cooperation between unrelated individuals, particularly across species. In a 1971 paper
The Selfish Gene the benefit of the behaver, but whether it is to the benefit of the gene "G" ...With altruism this will happen only if the affected individual is a relative of the altruist, therefore having an increased chance of carrying the gene. An extended discussion of Dawkins' views and his book "The Selfish Gene" is provided by Wilkins and Hull. Dawkins begins by discussing the altruism that people display, indicating that he will argue it is explained by gene selfishness, and attacking group selection as an explanation. He considers the origin of life with the arrival of molecules able to replicate