No Crimes in the Wilderness
Crime, strictly speaking, does not actually exist. It is merely a matter of defining something as a crime.
In the Korea where I once lived, adultery was once punishable by law, but later it was redefined as a personal matter rather than something the state should punish.
In some countries, a woman exposing bare skin is enough to warrant punishment. In others, euthanasia is legal. Go back to the Joseon era and failing to show filial piety to one's parents could get you punished.
The definition of "crime" has constantly shifted with the times, region, and culture. The severity of punishment has shifted along with it.
Now, consider the wilderness. The wild has no laws. Without laws, if something is beneficial, organisms will ruthlessly commit acts that human morality would consider grave crimes.
Simplest example: what is the most serious crime? Usually murder, right? Though it depends on how the killing is done... Still, murder is considered a serious felony by anyone.
Yet in the wild, whether carnivore or herbivore, taking another creature's life is treated as nothing. In fact, it is not even simple murder. In many cultures, cannibalism is viewed as a far graver crime than murder, yet it happens constantly.
So applying human morality to nature becomes truly bizarre. Philosophically speaking, does "morality" even truly exist? Do good and evil exist at all?
I do not know the answer to such discussions. But from a biological standpoint, it is simple.
Nature has no right or wrong. Only excellence and failure.
What remains is nothing but strategy. In that sense, biology speaks of "evil reproduction."
After all, life continues only through reproduction, does it not? No matter what one does, only organisms that spread their genes survive.
"That somehow makes sense, but it feels strangely unpleasant..."
"Hmm... Honestly, I feel the same, but we cannot apply human morality to nature. Just as we cannot apply nature's morality to human society and civilization."
"That is true. Recommending cannibalism just because it happens in nature would be absurd."
Since I still retain some humanity and feel disgusted just thinking about applying human standards, let us first examine how the creatures of my Dessert Desert actually reproduce.
"Where shall we begin?"
"Let's start with the Gamchi."
Most Gamchi practice monogamy. Smaller, flocking species like the Swarm Gamchi sometimes maintain promiscuous relationships, but the basic pattern is monogamy.
The Bisyakheet is a prime example of monogamy. To court a female, the male must bring her an Abhojuth tentacle. (Naturally, I had already ordered the Abhojuth to tolerate having tentacles taken by any male worth considering.)
The female, for her part, must have a home. Only with a large, sturdy nest can she attract a strong male and receive a tentacle filled with Nectar.
Once the female accepts the male's gift, they become a couple. They lay eggs in that large nest and raise their young together.
From then on, they take turns going to the Nectar Well. One drinks the Nectar and returns (regurgitating roughly half to share with their spouse), while the other stays behind to guard the nest and rest.
Some Bisyakheet are parasites who steal nests rather than build their own, which makes these shifts all the more important.
Whether male or female, they must never take their eyes off their eggs. There are cunning Pudding predators that specifically target Gamchi eggs, so the Bisyakheet's territorial instinct is ferocious.
"Oh? Then when we throw Bisyakheet into the opposing world, is that why they become so vicious?"
"A big reason is that they go mad from not being able to see their beloved families."
"They're not even people!"
Anyway, using the Bisyakheet as an example, most Gamchi live this way through monogamous cooperation. Their ecosystem is simply that brutal.
Unlike bats, which are often polygynous, they resemble Earth's birds. The vast majority of bird species are monogamous. They incubate eggs and take turns hunting, with one staying to warm the eggs while the other brings food for the chicks.
Because they must fly, their bodies are fragile, and eggs cannot grow too large. The chicks are tiny and helpless, so the only way to protect them is for both parents to work together.
"Monogamy is an extremely effective strategy in nature. It has several advantages. First, the cost of raising offspring is halved. Second, the probability of offspring surviving to adulthood increases. Third, compared to promiscuous or polygynous societies, it makes spreading one's genes easier..."
In that regard, the "evil" strategy here is quite simple to understand.
Look at that Red-Crest Gamchi. A male with a red crest on his head who lives monogamously.
The male performs an elaborate courtship dance with his flashy crest to win the female's favor. If she is impressed, they build a nest together, mate, and from that point on the male works tirelessly to bring food for the female while she lays and incubates the eggs.
"This already feels like it's heading somewhere bad."
And the male does not return until the female has laid her eggs.
"Did the male get eaten by some Pudding on the way? Is that it?"
No. He simply met another female and is busy spreading his seed. He will run off again afterward.
"I knew it!"
In this case, the male can spread his genes far and wide without investing any effort in raising his offspring.
"Then how does the female raise the chicks?"
"As you said earlier, it is common for males who go out to forage in the Dessert Desert to die, so she simply becomes a single mother, repeatedly foraging for food and incubating eggs. Sometimes she starves to death..."
"But wouldn't the chicks grow worse than if both parents raised them together?"
Of course they would. But does that matter? Spreading seed across a hundred eggs and having six reach adulthood is considered a successful strategy in nature, rather than carefully raising five eggs and hatching four.
However, the females are not passive victims either.
Because males keep taking advantage through such "freeloading," females no longer accept courtship dances at face value. They demand concrete compensation—specifically, food.
In other words, the standards in the relationship between the sexes have risen. "If you want to marry me, show some sincerity!"
"Oh... That is certainly an excellent countermeasure."
Thus, male Red-Crest Gamchi bring prey to offer the females.
Some females accept after a single offering, while others require three or four gifts, or demand Nectar instead. Each female has her own criteria for how much food is enough.
Once the amount is sufficient to build up adequate fat reserves, she finally accepts the courtship.
This way, even if the male dies or flees midway, it is fine. She will still have enough resources to raise her young as a single mother.
"I see."
And here, the cleverer females go even further. They accept food from weaker males without committing, continuing to receive gifts until the male either gives up or dies from exhaustion. Only when a larger, stronger male appears who meets her standards does she mate and begin raising offspring.
"Hwaaaaaah!"
Meanwhile, the large, strong male, having spent too much energy becoming large and strong, simply abandons the offspring without raising them.
"Hwa, hwaaaaaah!"
But do not worry. Another young male has appeared. Having found a female with sufficient fat reserves, he proposes they become a couple.
"Phew..."
So he immediately swallows all the eggs the female has laid and begins mating, forcing her to incubate his offspring instead of the previous male's.
"Kkeuheuhaaaheugeuaaga!"
By eating another's eggs or killing the female's existing chicks in this way, males who take in widows are readily accepted and allowed to protect the female.
"I suppose that is something of a relief..."
"If the male tries to deceive her again here, the female can no longer trust anyone. So it is the limit of strategic complexity, I suppose..."
Nature is only as complex as efficiency allows. There are males who pull such stunts, but their genes are rarely passed on. No organism can endure such harsh betrayal and forced exploitation.
Through the process of resisting these "crimes," speciation occurs once again even among the already established Red-Crest Gamchi.
Perhaps the entire species will abandon monogamy, which requires trusting one's partner, and evolve toward polygyny, promiscuity, communal rearing, or other social animal parenting methods.
In short, although it does not yet exist in my ecosystem, when a new "lion" takes over a pride, he kills all the cubs that are not his own.
Because raising another's offspring brings no benefit.
"Just like how you encouraged Yogur-tosoth's arrogance last time, encouraging evil deeds does seem like a Demon King's strategy."
"In ordinary civilizations, when public order is poor and people harbor ill will, one must pay attention to politics in various ways, but in nature there is no such need."
This is also the greatest advantage of the anti-intellectualism build. Since whatever strategy survives is the best strategy, there is no need to control anything, and thus no control occurs. No additional costs are incurred.
As a minor additional benefit, because the environment is one of extreme stress, each organism has developed strong stress resistance. In fact, things like "patience" or "indomitable spirit" can also be explained biologically.
The Dessert Legion is sensitive to stimuli but insensitive to stress.
Even when something wretched happens, they simply think, "Ah, the Dessert Desert is a wretched place today as always," and go on living.
Rather than trembling with betrayal when they realize the male has been freeloading, the females simply try to find a new husband.
"Then is the Dessert Desert advancing toward becoming a hellscape like this?"
"That is not the case. Look over there."
Let us return to the pair of Red-Crest Gamchi we have been using as an example.
While other members of their species exploit one another with malicious intent, demanding gifts, freeloading, and betraying, this pair simply met, devoted themselves to each other without any compensation, and raised their offspring together.
Monogamy is functioning properly. They have already successfully raised twelve chicks to adulthood, and their genes for "devotion to one's mate" will be properly passed on to the next generation.
Genes that grant such a virtuous spirit, strong enough to overcome even the "evil intent" brought by disaster.
"That is... unexpected."
"Saying that nature has no good or evil does not mean encouraging evil deeds. It simply means that good deeds and evil deeds are equally valid strategies. Many humans misunderstand the laws of nature."
When the number of freeloaders who shift all responsibility onto their partners increases, the value of devoted individuals rises.
Because when freeloaders fail to properly raise their offspring, monogamous couples who devotedly raise their children can produce many healthy, excellent offspring.
Evil deeds that occur naturally are ultimately suppressed naturally as well.
In game theory, the optimal strategy is cooperation. While betrayal can yield short-term gains, cooperation fundamentally brings far greater benefits.
"Those Red-Crest Gamchi look like fools to others. The female demands no gifts from the male and suspects nothing. The male offers everything to bring food for the female. To freeloaders, they seem like pathetic suckers. Yet strangely, such virtuous suckers exist as the solid mainstream of the world."
Because just as much as wickedness, virtue is an excellent strategy. There is no more ideal energy efficiency than this.
"How wonderful. The power of good deeds. Ah, that is not the Red-Crest Gamchi, but another species, yet that couple over there also has a devoted male."
He has even brought Nectar stored in his stomach. Despite not being as strong as a Bisyakheet, he crawled all the way to the Nectar Well, drank until his stomach was about to burst, and returned...? That is truly impressive. To go that far to devote himself to his family.
Wait a moment...
"What is it?"
"That male has mixed quite a lot of water into the Nectar he is giving his wife."
"......"
"It seems he is maintaining two households by diluting the Nectar to inflate the quantity. My, so it is neither thoroughly devoted nor thoroughly freeloading, but a half-devoted strategy. He has found quite the remarkable compromise. This way, he can spread his genes twice as much with the same effort."
"Uwaaah..."
The ruthless natural world. Crude strategies like "always bad" or "always good" do not survive.
Life and nature, love and betrayal. All of it can be explained through strategy.