This reminded me of a discussion of the "Red Queen Hypothesis"[0] in the book Daemon by Daniel Suarez[1].

It's alternately interesting and disturbing... the implication that much of our social behavior is to further the aims of microscopic puppet masters.

[0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(book_series)