Matt Candeias

“One of the biggest myths that people must overcome is that idea that nature is full of peace, harmony, and balance. These concepts are human inventions and are applied to the world so that our feebly conscious minds can deal with the unfeeling, uncaring essence of nature and the universe as a whole. Just as the phenomenon known as pareidolia causes us to see faces in the rock formations on Mars or the Virgin Mary on a burned piece of toast, our need to apply meaning to the world causes us to see altruism in what are essentially cases of selfish give and take, and harmony where it doesn’t exist.”
― Matt Candeias, In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants

“Across all walks of life on our planet, we tend to see more “altruistic” behavior when organisms share DNA. Parents care for their own children more than the children of others; siblings care more for each other than non-siblings. We refer to this as kin selection. Simply put, life is DNA and DNA “takes care” of its own copies.”
― Matt Candeias, In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants