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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
Jättebra och intressant men stundvis utdaterad information, så en 4a
So much supposition. So little science. It takes more faith to believe this than in a Creator
informative
medium-paced
I'm finding this really boring - guess I should have read it before "Blind Watchmaker" - I feel like it's rehashing what I already know though.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Should be required reading at schools. It certainly gave me an idea about why Dr. Dawkins came to be considered a thought leader, which isn't often visible now. Every sentence is purposeful and brimful of information.
A foundational text for understanding evolutionary biology
Richard Dawkins is one of the most famous evolutionary biologists in the world from this era. His foundational book 'the selfish gene' is still relevant today. I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook which partly he himself has narrated. He spends a considerable time initially to set right the expectations of his readers. Like a good pop-science book, this work provides many fascinating insights from a particular branch of science; which in this case happens to be evolution. It demands considerable attention from the reader as the author is not interested in just scratching the surface. But ultimately the revelations are worth the effort.
Following are the highlights from the book -
1) Humans and other organisms are complex machines built by our genes. The author clarifies that he does not advocate selfishness in the book. He is merely explaining how the evolution works. It is more difficult for us to learn altruism due to this biological fact. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are upto. Because at least then we will have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to.
The book also doesn't claim to take any side in the nature vs nurture debate. If at all, we are an exception to the rule of selfish gene, let us first understand the rule.
2) Some readers blamed the book selfish gene for pushing them into depression as it told them there is no higher purpose to life. Richard says it is unfair to blame scientist for presenting facts that may sound unpleasant.
3) Natural selection built us and it is natural selection we must understand to comprehend our own identities.
4) Our brains have evolved to the point where we can rebel against our selfish gene. Our conscious use of contraceptives is a proof of that.
5) The author compares general outcry against racism with widespread acceptance of speciesm i.e. human belief that members of human species have different rights compared to other species. He says it has no basis in evolutionary biology.
6) The group selection theory suggests altruistic acts by some members of the group for the greater good of the group. The author questions it by stretching this logic. He says how do we decide the level at which the altruism should stop? If not at individual level, then at group level? Or at species level? Or at class level? It is difficult to answer.
7) The replicator - The first organic molecule with the ability to replicate itself is called by author the replicator. This was a highly impossible event to take place on earth.
8) Copying mistakes in replication is what allows evolution to take place. Although we may think evolution is a good thing since we came from it, nothing actually wants to evolve. Evolution is something that happens Willy nilly despite the efforts of replicator to prevent it.
9) It is immaterial whether we call the earliest replicator living or not. Many times people forget that words are tools to describe something. The mere existence of the word ''living" in dictionary does not mean it's a definite thing. Irrespective of that, the earliest replicators were our founding fathers.
10) 3 crucial factors favoured in replication
11) longevity - longer lifespan is better
12) fidelity - minimum copying errors are better
13) rate of replication i.e. fecundity - faster the better
11) As resources became scarce, replicators started building containers for their continuing existence. They worked on survival machines for themselves to live in.
Now those replicators go by the name is gene and we are their survival machines!
12) ATCG are the same 4 building blocks of DNA for all species. But their sequence differs for everyone except in special case of identical twins. Each cell of our body contains a copy of this DNA. It's like in a giant building, each room has a bookcase which contains the plan for entire building.
But how does DNA execute this building plan? It does it with creation of molecules called proteins. The coded message of nucleotides in DNA are translated into message written in alphabets of amino acids which become protein molecules. Our acquired knowledge is not coded in DNA. Each generation starts afresh.
13) The building plan is made of 46 volumes i.e. 46 chromosomes. 23 from father and 23 from mother. Each chromosome has a complimentary paired chromosome this way. E.g. There are 2 chromosomes for eye colour. Father chromosome is for blue eye and mother chromosome is for brown eye. One instruction is implemented and the other one is ignored. But that doesn't mean it is not passed down to future generation. Hence our next generation is a compromise between 2 parents.
14) Sperm is having 23 chromosome and egg has 23 chromosome. Sperm chooses these 23 out of 46 and same is true for egg. But all sperms and eggs are individually unique.
15) A gene can be defined as a replicator with a high copying fidelity. There are various definitions of gene. But all agree that it has to be a portion of the chromosome. The variation is regarding how big a portion it should be. Author defines a genetic unit as that part of chromosome which can't be differentiated from other parts of chromosome. Now if this unit is small, it has greater chance of passing down many generations as it is less likely to be split with one crossover.
16) The lifetime of an entire chromosome is just one generation. It is bound to be torn apart when the sperm or egg is formed for next generations procreation.
17) A lethal gene will get removed from gene pool if it affects the organism at a young age before it reproduces. On the other hand, a lethal gene acting on old age can propagate itself if it waits till reproduction of host organism. Thus the accumulation of such late acting lethal genes allows for fatal diseases in old age.
18) One unresolved mystery is that not all part of DNA contributes to building of body. They are just accompanying other actually working part of DNA on the journey.
19) Neurons are nothing but cells with chromosomes like others but they are much longer, some are as long as giraffes neck! They are bundled together in multi-stranded cables called nerves!
20) The author defines our consciousness in an interesting manner. He says a purpose driven survival machines works in a negative feedback loop. It is equipped with a measuring device which measures the discrepancy between current state of things and the desired state. It works to reduce the discrepancy. The conscious purpose drives it.
21) Genes are like software programmers who have one chance of programming in all the strategies for survival. Richard gives a good analogy with deep thought computer which was programmed to play chess against grandmasters. Genes are the primary policymakers, brains are the executive!
22) Animal aggression is a fascinating subject. Animals fight each other mostly in a gentlemanly manner, say with rules and don't always go for the fatal blow. Game theory comes into picture. Evolutionary stable strategies ESS are analysed in this regard.
23) Kin selection - The selfishness of genes results in us giving preference to saving our kins compared to strangers. The relativeness is calculated in an intuitive manner. We first calculate generational distance between 2 organism A and B. It is calculated by going up from A till nearest common ancestor pair and coming down to B. Let us say the distance is 3. Then relativeness is (1/2) raised to 3.
Thus the relativeness decreases exponentially.
24) The kin recognition - All good comrades you can tell, by their altruistic smell! Smell plays an important role in organisms' recognition of kin. There are some other non verbal clues also.
25) Incest avoidance by organisms - A lethal gene kills its host. A recessive gene only kills the host when 2 of them are present. Hence such genes are likely to multiply during incest and hence incest avoidance is inbuilt as part of natural selection. So it is not just social norms but genetics.
26) Kin selective altruism - Dawkins distinguishes between caring strategies and bearing strategies. Caring related to tasks like feeding existing children to ensure their survival. On the other hand, bearing strategies are related to decision to procreate. Both impulses need to be balanced.
27) Population control - The size of population is not just determined by how many children we are having but how much is the gap between 2 generations. Hence the slogan 'stop at 2' can be replaced by 'start at 30'. Mathematically they are similar.
28) Battle of the generations - The author suggests that natural selection favours genes which make a child cheat or lie in order to get more food. This is not a moral prescription but just logical deduction of selfish gene theory. Hence it is even more important for us to specifically teach our children to be altruistic as it is not likely to be in their genes.
29) Battle of the sexes - The scientific way to distinguish between male and female of the same species is interesting. The female cells for procreation (egg) are always much larger than the male cell (sperm). Now this naturally means that eggs will always be in much smaller numbers than sperms. The author argues that eventually this results in females giving precedence to bearing & caring over fighting, combat etc. So ultimately the male of the species end up giving preference to activities other than bearing & caring. Since creation of an egg takes much more energy than a sperm, the female is much more invested in successful caring of a child. This is a deduction based on gene's propensity to behave in selfish manner to be successful in gene pool.
Hence even evolutionarily speaking, females are exploited and the basis lies in the fact that eggs are larger than sperms.
30) Game theory logic for deciding who should desert the other partner first - Either of the parent has to think whether the child is sufficiently old enough so that only one parent can care for it. And if that is so, whether my partner has enough reasons to continue caring for the child even if I desert him or her. At the same time, the other partner is also thinking on these lines. The Central idea being to find a new mate to further expand the progeny. Usually the advantage lies with the partner who deserts first.
31) Hence the benefit of long courtship - Domestic bliss strategy - Long courtship before mating is beneficial to both sexes. The female can assess whether the male is casual and more likely to desert her leaving the entire burden of rearing on her shoulders. At the same time, the male can be sure that the female is already not carrying child of another male and hence duping him in adopting someone else's genes.
32) External fertilization in fish - 97% fish release their eggs and sperms in a common pool where they fertilize. This is different from land species where most fertilize eggs inside female body. The reason is that on land, the sperm will dry out if left outside. As the female is carrying the embryo inside her, she is more vulnerable to desertion on land. The equation flips in water. As female eggs are bigger than sperms, they are less likely to diffuse in water and hence sturdier. So the female can spawn the eggs earlier than male and by the time the male injects sperms to fertilize the eggs, she can disappear leaving him with the embryos. Thus paternal care is more common among fish!!
33) Why animals stay in herds? - We can assume that initially all prey animals are loosely moving together. Each prey will have a zone of danger of hexagonal shape. The prey animals on the edge will be facing more danger. Hence they will start moving towards centre. Hence there will be a tendency to aggregate and form dense packs.
34) Termites are an exception to taboo around inbreeding. The king and queen of the colony reproduce as long as one of them dies. Then one of the offspring takes the place of deceased parent and continues reproducing.
35) Slavery and warfare is common amongst ants - Ant colonies have soldiers who work for defending they colony and also raiding other colonies. During such raids on ants of other species, soldier ants take away unhatched eggs. They are reared and once they are born, they are unaware of their own enslavement. They continue to work presuming they are in their own colony. The slavers are free to work on other tasks.
36) Universal Darwinism - Like physics, are there are universal laws of biology? The author strongly claims - All life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities. This is expected to be true in all galaxies.
He claims limitless power for slightly inaccurate self replicating entities once they arise anywhere in the universe. Because they become the basis for Darwinian selection which, given enough generations, cumulatively build systems of great complexity.
37) Memes - The term used by author about ideas or myths. He says human cultures replicate their ideas just like genes.
After death, we leave behind both genes and memes (ideas). After few generations, the proportion of our genes in our descendants becomes negligible. But it is possible for our ideas to transcend many generations. Perhaps there are no genes of Socrates in the living world today, but who cares? His ideas have survived for thousands of years.
38) We are built as meme machines and cultured as gene machines but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of selfish replicators!
39) Nice guys finish first - There is a nice detailed discussion on how species have to face iterated prisoners' dilemma game. In a simple prisoners' dilemma, there are 2 options, co-operate or defect. Logically, the only sensible choice is to defect as it will give better outcome irrespective of whether other prisoner cooperates or defects. But genetic evolution gives many more options and hence many more strategies can evolve.
He also takes a dig a divorce lawyers in US and UK while discussing game theory options. If both spouses agreed to cooperate and go for amicable settlement, the cost to both of them would be less and lawyers won't get much benefit. But as lawyers from both sides put forth unreasonable demands, the resolution gets dragged on and hence lawyer's fees piles up!
40) Mutual cooperation depends on shadow of the future - Aptly demonstrated by trench warfare of English and German soldiers in WW1. There was local truce at many locations from 2014 to 2016. As there was no clarity on when the war would end, individual soldiers on both sides had little to gain by engaging in ferocious trench warfare. They rather maintained a known schedule of shelling so that both sides could maintain the facade of war and at the same time not have casualties.
41) Cheating genes - Segregation distorters - Like there are some animals in a group who cheat and take unfair advantage of others, there are genes within the body who may cheat. They are called segregation distorters. They ensure that subsequent generations have disproportionately high representation of themselves. This disturbs the balance and may be fatal for the survival of the species. But they just don't care. e.g. T genes in mice
So the author argues in his book 'The extended phenotype', the survival or protection of organism is incidental. What matters actually is the survival or protection of genes.
42) The extended Phenotype theorem : An animal's behaviour tends to maximise the survival of the genes for that behaviour whether or not those genes happen to be in the body of organism performing it.
There are genes who go to the extent of manipulating even other organisms for their own benefit. The genes turn replicators and organisms (same or foreign) become their vehicle. This is akin to the spiders in 'The children of time' using ant colonies for their defences and other mechanical works through chemicals! In that example, the spider genes are the replicators and ants are the vehicles.
43) Bottlenecking of life cycle - An organism as huge as an elephant has its beginning in a single cell i.e. a fertilised egg. It's goal or end product is also production of a single cell i.e. fertilized egg of the next generation. The lifecycle of the bulky elephant both begins and ends with a narrow bottleneck. What is the rationale? - The author claims it provides a chance to go back to the drawing board with each new birth. It facilitates incremental improvements with each new body and hence furthers the goal of natural selection.
44) The embryology of new birth follows precise timetable - meaning it is predecided which organ will grow at which time during the development process of embryo. This precise clockwork ensure all genes play their part at assigned time during the birthing process. This is one reason for bottlenecking of life cycle.
Overall, a very interesting and still relevant book worth the effort.
Richard Dawkins is one of the most famous evolutionary biologists in the world from this era. His foundational book 'the selfish gene' is still relevant today. I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook which partly he himself has narrated. He spends a considerable time initially to set right the expectations of his readers. Like a good pop-science book, this work provides many fascinating insights from a particular branch of science; which in this case happens to be evolution. It demands considerable attention from the reader as the author is not interested in just scratching the surface. But ultimately the revelations are worth the effort.
Following are the highlights from the book -
1) Humans and other organisms are complex machines built by our genes. The author clarifies that he does not advocate selfishness in the book. He is merely explaining how the evolution works. It is more difficult for us to learn altruism due to this biological fact. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are upto. Because at least then we will have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to.
The book also doesn't claim to take any side in the nature vs nurture debate. If at all, we are an exception to the rule of selfish gene, let us first understand the rule.
2) Some readers blamed the book selfish gene for pushing them into depression as it told them there is no higher purpose to life. Richard says it is unfair to blame scientist for presenting facts that may sound unpleasant.
3) Natural selection built us and it is natural selection we must understand to comprehend our own identities.
4) Our brains have evolved to the point where we can rebel against our selfish gene. Our conscious use of contraceptives is a proof of that.
5) The author compares general outcry against racism with widespread acceptance of speciesm i.e. human belief that members of human species have different rights compared to other species. He says it has no basis in evolutionary biology.
6) The group selection theory suggests altruistic acts by some members of the group for the greater good of the group. The author questions it by stretching this logic. He says how do we decide the level at which the altruism should stop? If not at individual level, then at group level? Or at species level? Or at class level? It is difficult to answer.
7) The replicator - The first organic molecule with the ability to replicate itself is called by author the replicator. This was a highly impossible event to take place on earth.
8) Copying mistakes in replication is what allows evolution to take place. Although we may think evolution is a good thing since we came from it, nothing actually wants to evolve. Evolution is something that happens Willy nilly despite the efforts of replicator to prevent it.
9) It is immaterial whether we call the earliest replicator living or not. Many times people forget that words are tools to describe something. The mere existence of the word ''living" in dictionary does not mean it's a definite thing. Irrespective of that, the earliest replicators were our founding fathers.
10) 3 crucial factors favoured in replication
11) longevity - longer lifespan is better
12) fidelity - minimum copying errors are better
13) rate of replication i.e. fecundity - faster the better
11) As resources became scarce, replicators started building containers for their continuing existence. They worked on survival machines for themselves to live in.
Now those replicators go by the name is gene and we are their survival machines!
12) ATCG are the same 4 building blocks of DNA for all species. But their sequence differs for everyone except in special case of identical twins. Each cell of our body contains a copy of this DNA. It's like in a giant building, each room has a bookcase which contains the plan for entire building.
But how does DNA execute this building plan? It does it with creation of molecules called proteins. The coded message of nucleotides in DNA are translated into message written in alphabets of amino acids which become protein molecules. Our acquired knowledge is not coded in DNA. Each generation starts afresh.
13) The building plan is made of 46 volumes i.e. 46 chromosomes. 23 from father and 23 from mother. Each chromosome has a complimentary paired chromosome this way. E.g. There are 2 chromosomes for eye colour. Father chromosome is for blue eye and mother chromosome is for brown eye. One instruction is implemented and the other one is ignored. But that doesn't mean it is not passed down to future generation. Hence our next generation is a compromise between 2 parents.
14) Sperm is having 23 chromosome and egg has 23 chromosome. Sperm chooses these 23 out of 46 and same is true for egg. But all sperms and eggs are individually unique.
15) A gene can be defined as a replicator with a high copying fidelity. There are various definitions of gene. But all agree that it has to be a portion of the chromosome. The variation is regarding how big a portion it should be. Author defines a genetic unit as that part of chromosome which can't be differentiated from other parts of chromosome. Now if this unit is small, it has greater chance of passing down many generations as it is less likely to be split with one crossover.
16) The lifetime of an entire chromosome is just one generation. It is bound to be torn apart when the sperm or egg is formed for next generations procreation.
17) A lethal gene will get removed from gene pool if it affects the organism at a young age before it reproduces. On the other hand, a lethal gene acting on old age can propagate itself if it waits till reproduction of host organism. Thus the accumulation of such late acting lethal genes allows for fatal diseases in old age.
18) One unresolved mystery is that not all part of DNA contributes to building of body. They are just accompanying other actually working part of DNA on the journey.
19) Neurons are nothing but cells with chromosomes like others but they are much longer, some are as long as giraffes neck! They are bundled together in multi-stranded cables called nerves!
20) The author defines our consciousness in an interesting manner. He says a purpose driven survival machines works in a negative feedback loop. It is equipped with a measuring device which measures the discrepancy between current state of things and the desired state. It works to reduce the discrepancy. The conscious purpose drives it.
21) Genes are like software programmers who have one chance of programming in all the strategies for survival. Richard gives a good analogy with deep thought computer which was programmed to play chess against grandmasters. Genes are the primary policymakers, brains are the executive!
22) Animal aggression is a fascinating subject. Animals fight each other mostly in a gentlemanly manner, say with rules and don't always go for the fatal blow. Game theory comes into picture. Evolutionary stable strategies ESS are analysed in this regard.
23) Kin selection - The selfishness of genes results in us giving preference to saving our kins compared to strangers. The relativeness is calculated in an intuitive manner. We first calculate generational distance between 2 organism A and B. It is calculated by going up from A till nearest common ancestor pair and coming down to B. Let us say the distance is 3. Then relativeness is (1/2) raised to 3.
Thus the relativeness decreases exponentially.
24) The kin recognition - All good comrades you can tell, by their altruistic smell! Smell plays an important role in organisms' recognition of kin. There are some other non verbal clues also.
25) Incest avoidance by organisms - A lethal gene kills its host. A recessive gene only kills the host when 2 of them are present. Hence such genes are likely to multiply during incest and hence incest avoidance is inbuilt as part of natural selection. So it is not just social norms but genetics.
26) Kin selective altruism - Dawkins distinguishes between caring strategies and bearing strategies. Caring related to tasks like feeding existing children to ensure their survival. On the other hand, bearing strategies are related to decision to procreate. Both impulses need to be balanced.
27) Population control - The size of population is not just determined by how many children we are having but how much is the gap between 2 generations. Hence the slogan 'stop at 2' can be replaced by 'start at 30'. Mathematically they are similar.
28) Battle of the generations - The author suggests that natural selection favours genes which make a child cheat or lie in order to get more food. This is not a moral prescription but just logical deduction of selfish gene theory. Hence it is even more important for us to specifically teach our children to be altruistic as it is not likely to be in their genes.
29) Battle of the sexes - The scientific way to distinguish between male and female of the same species is interesting. The female cells for procreation (egg) are always much larger than the male cell (sperm). Now this naturally means that eggs will always be in much smaller numbers than sperms. The author argues that eventually this results in females giving precedence to bearing & caring over fighting, combat etc. So ultimately the male of the species end up giving preference to activities other than bearing & caring. Since creation of an egg takes much more energy than a sperm, the female is much more invested in successful caring of a child. This is a deduction based on gene's propensity to behave in selfish manner to be successful in gene pool.
Hence even evolutionarily speaking, females are exploited and the basis lies in the fact that eggs are larger than sperms.
30) Game theory logic for deciding who should desert the other partner first - Either of the parent has to think whether the child is sufficiently old enough so that only one parent can care for it. And if that is so, whether my partner has enough reasons to continue caring for the child even if I desert him or her. At the same time, the other partner is also thinking on these lines. The Central idea being to find a new mate to further expand the progeny. Usually the advantage lies with the partner who deserts first.
31) Hence the benefit of long courtship - Domestic bliss strategy - Long courtship before mating is beneficial to both sexes. The female can assess whether the male is casual and more likely to desert her leaving the entire burden of rearing on her shoulders. At the same time, the male can be sure that the female is already not carrying child of another male and hence duping him in adopting someone else's genes.
32) External fertilization in fish - 97% fish release their eggs and sperms in a common pool where they fertilize. This is different from land species where most fertilize eggs inside female body. The reason is that on land, the sperm will dry out if left outside. As the female is carrying the embryo inside her, she is more vulnerable to desertion on land. The equation flips in water. As female eggs are bigger than sperms, they are less likely to diffuse in water and hence sturdier. So the female can spawn the eggs earlier than male and by the time the male injects sperms to fertilize the eggs, she can disappear leaving him with the embryos. Thus paternal care is more common among fish!!
33) Why animals stay in herds? - We can assume that initially all prey animals are loosely moving together. Each prey will have a zone of danger of hexagonal shape. The prey animals on the edge will be facing more danger. Hence they will start moving towards centre. Hence there will be a tendency to aggregate and form dense packs.
34) Termites are an exception to taboo around inbreeding. The king and queen of the colony reproduce as long as one of them dies. Then one of the offspring takes the place of deceased parent and continues reproducing.
35) Slavery and warfare is common amongst ants - Ant colonies have soldiers who work for defending they colony and also raiding other colonies. During such raids on ants of other species, soldier ants take away unhatched eggs. They are reared and once they are born, they are unaware of their own enslavement. They continue to work presuming they are in their own colony. The slavers are free to work on other tasks.
36) Universal Darwinism - Like physics, are there are universal laws of biology? The author strongly claims - All life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities. This is expected to be true in all galaxies.
He claims limitless power for slightly inaccurate self replicating entities once they arise anywhere in the universe. Because they become the basis for Darwinian selection which, given enough generations, cumulatively build systems of great complexity.
37) Memes - The term used by author about ideas or myths. He says human cultures replicate their ideas just like genes.
After death, we leave behind both genes and memes (ideas). After few generations, the proportion of our genes in our descendants becomes negligible. But it is possible for our ideas to transcend many generations. Perhaps there are no genes of Socrates in the living world today, but who cares? His ideas have survived for thousands of years.
38) We are built as meme machines and cultured as gene machines but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of selfish replicators!
39) Nice guys finish first - There is a nice detailed discussion on how species have to face iterated prisoners' dilemma game. In a simple prisoners' dilemma, there are 2 options, co-operate or defect. Logically, the only sensible choice is to defect as it will give better outcome irrespective of whether other prisoner cooperates or defects. But genetic evolution gives many more options and hence many more strategies can evolve.
He also takes a dig a divorce lawyers in US and UK while discussing game theory options. If both spouses agreed to cooperate and go for amicable settlement, the cost to both of them would be less and lawyers won't get much benefit. But as lawyers from both sides put forth unreasonable demands, the resolution gets dragged on and hence lawyer's fees piles up!
40) Mutual cooperation depends on shadow of the future - Aptly demonstrated by trench warfare of English and German soldiers in WW1. There was local truce at many locations from 2014 to 2016. As there was no clarity on when the war would end, individual soldiers on both sides had little to gain by engaging in ferocious trench warfare. They rather maintained a known schedule of shelling so that both sides could maintain the facade of war and at the same time not have casualties.
41) Cheating genes - Segregation distorters - Like there are some animals in a group who cheat and take unfair advantage of others, there are genes within the body who may cheat. They are called segregation distorters. They ensure that subsequent generations have disproportionately high representation of themselves. This disturbs the balance and may be fatal for the survival of the species. But they just don't care. e.g. T genes in mice
So the author argues in his book 'The extended phenotype', the survival or protection of organism is incidental. What matters actually is the survival or protection of genes.
42) The extended Phenotype theorem : An animal's behaviour tends to maximise the survival of the genes for that behaviour whether or not those genes happen to be in the body of organism performing it.
There are genes who go to the extent of manipulating even other organisms for their own benefit. The genes turn replicators and organisms (same or foreign) become their vehicle. This is akin to the spiders in 'The children of time' using ant colonies for their defences and other mechanical works through chemicals! In that example, the spider genes are the replicators and ants are the vehicles.
43) Bottlenecking of life cycle - An organism as huge as an elephant has its beginning in a single cell i.e. a fertilised egg. It's goal or end product is also production of a single cell i.e. fertilized egg of the next generation. The lifecycle of the bulky elephant both begins and ends with a narrow bottleneck. What is the rationale? - The author claims it provides a chance to go back to the drawing board with each new birth. It facilitates incremental improvements with each new body and hence furthers the goal of natural selection.
44) The embryology of new birth follows precise timetable - meaning it is predecided which organ will grow at which time during the development process of embryo. This precise clockwork ensure all genes play their part at assigned time during the birthing process. This is one reason for bottlenecking of life cycle.
Overall, a very interesting and still relevant book worth the effort.
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is a groundbreaking and insightful book that explores the evolution of life from a novel perspective. Through his brilliant writing and logical arguments, Dawkins posits that genes are the driving force behind evolution, not individuals or species. He argues that genes strive for survival and replication, and that this results in the development of complex organisms and behaviors that are advantageous for their survival. The book provides a thought-provoking and empowering view of life, and has been widely celebrated for its contribution to our understanding of evolution and its impact on modern biology and society. It is a must-read for anyone interested in science, biology, and the nature of life itself.
Pretty good. Reading it in 2023 I felt like a lot of the information was stuff I already learned in school though. I'm sure it was groundbreaking at the time it came out though.