evolution - What is the Edward O. Wilson fuss about?

After reading the article, the fuss is about this:

In currently accepted theory Eusociality or "kin selection" explains altruistic behavior (the sacrifice of yourself or resources you control for the betterment of something else besides you) by relating the act to the amount of genetic information passed on.

The relevant equation is Hamilton's rule:

                                                              $rB > C$

C is the cost to the actor (the person giving up resources). B is the number of others involved, and r is the relationship value to the actor in terms of genetic similarity.

So if you and two full-siblings (who each share on-average 50% of your genome) and a bus comes straight at the group, and you have the capability to push them out of the way while dying yourself, kin selection suggests you shouldn't because the genetic cost is equivalent. You eliminate yourself from the gene pool, and save the equivalent of yourself for future generations (2 x 1/2 = 1).

However, if you and three siblings were in the situation, then it's evolutionarily advantageous to be altruistic. You would die (a cost of 1), but you would save the equivalent of 1.5x your genome (3 x 1/2 = 1.5) to pass on to future generations.

Thus, communal and social behaviors like those of ants basically boil down to: Everybody is so closely related that spending resources to help your kin is essentially spending resources to ensure the majority of your genome survives (which is the big point of evolution, after all).

Wilson's argument, what I can glean from the small brief of the study and the article, is that you don't need the relatedness equation to explain altruistic behavior in social situations (basically the row is he's saying the currently accepted theory is wrong). All you need to start with is a genetic mutation somewhere along the line that causes the offspring to stick close to home. Once you have a few generations that don't leave the nest, you start to develop social behavior that results in altruism because you've gone from selfish individuals to a group setting.

The article and Wilson don't give any more insight other than altruism apparently develops spontaneously from the formation of groups. Simply being social is the explanation for why some individuals will give resources to others to ensure the success of the others.

Whether or not Wilson is correct isn't really discussed. He openly admits to needing a lot of research, some of which is being performed.