It is said that there are two kinds of generic strategies: low cost or differentiation. I was thinking of how species apply those strategies in their reproduction. So if we consider the offspring as a product, then species like humans, which choose to produce a few children but to invest a lot of resources to secure their survival, follow a differentiated strategy. The other option is to produce as many offspring as possible, investing a few resources in each one (low cost strategy), and hoping for the survival of as many as possible.
A question that crosses my mind after my previous thought is whether we really choose a strategy, or it is imposed in reality by other factors. In my example, modern society doesn’t allow people to follow a low cost strategy; otherwise they will be sentenced to life in prison. Indeed, as I read in “Moral Minds”, by Marc Hauser, Jack and Sylvia Darner chose to follow this strategy. Due to the fact that only 2 of their 15 children survived, they found guilty for intentionally overproducing children.
The previous thoughts lead me to suppose that in a certain environment, in a certain context, there are forces letting only one kind of strategy to survive. The other one is sooner or later doomed.
