Shareholder Primacy

Biological Parallel

The 'selfish gene' view treats organisms as vehicles for genetic replication—the biological equivalent of shareholder primacy. This optimization for a single metric (gene copies) can produce spectacular short-term success: cancer cells that maximize division rates, invasive species that monopolize resources, or cuckoo chicks that murder nest-mates to claim all parental investment. But narrow optimization creates fragility—cancer kills its host, invasives trigger ecosystem collapse, parasites drive arms races that burn resources in conflict rather than creation.