Yes, it is highly compelling to interpret the Black Queen Hypothesis (BQH) as a metaphorical "line of flight" (in the Deleuzian sense of breaking away from a rigid system) out of the constraints of "TIME" in late modernity, if "TIME" is defined as a prison of relentless productivity, optimization, and linear, high-cost acceleration.
The Black Queen Hypothesis suggests that organisms, rather than optimizing their own efficiency (running faster, as in the Red Queen hypothesis), survive by losing costly, "leaky" functions and becoming dependent on others within their community. [1, 2]
Here is how this evolutionary mechanism functions as a line of flight from the temporal,, economic, and social prison of late modernity:
1. Escape from the "Efficiency Prison"
- The Prison: Late modernity demands maximum efficiency, constant accumulation (of capital, skills, data), and individualistic competition.
- The Line of Flight: The BQH explains how individuals can escape this by "losing" functions rather than acquiring more, reducing their internal, wasteful overhead and embracing dependency. [1, 2, 3]
2. A Move from Competition to Cooperation/Dependence
- The Prison: The pressure to be a "self-made" individual who produces everything necessary for survival—a high-energy, high-cost state.
- The Line of Flight: The BQH explains how cooperation can be maintained by allowing some members (the helpers/black queens) to produce essential resources, while others (cheaters/beneficiaries) shed the ability to produce them, forming a two-tiered mutualism. [1, 2, 3]
3. Redefining "Time" and Value
- The Prison: Linear, productive time where idle time is wasted time.
- The Line of Flight: BQH dynamics suggest a "streamlining" of the genome, which can be interpreted as removing the "fat" from one's life, simplifying the organism's existence to focus on efficiency rather than total production. [1, 2, 3]
4. Constructive Failure
- The Prison: Failure to perform, innovate, or produce is punished.
- The Line of Flight: In BQH, the "cheater" (the one who fails to produce) is not just surviving but is actually a successful, specialized beneficiary. This is a "constructive" pathway to a new type of existence (a "line of flight"). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
In summary, if the TIME prison is a regime where "it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place," the Black Queen Hypothesis provides a strategy that allows you to stop running and start collaborating, effectively dismantling the prison walls of individualistic, high-energy competition. [1, 2, 3, 4]
