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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
I’ve absolutely learnt a lot from Dawkins and this book. The man knows how to get a point across and has injected a good amount of knowledge into my brain. And lol God is a meme.
Although the original book is quite old, it has been revised several times, and in only a few spots does it sound truly dated (for example, in regards to computers, and possibly gender).
This is a long book, but the basic idea is that replicators (in our case genes) are the entities selected by evolution. That might sound either obvious or overly nuanced, especially to a non-biologist, but the sequence of real-world examples and thought experiments kept it interesting. I enjoyed this book for the continuous stream of thought-provoking ideas. It touches on everything from why organisms formed to the purpose of consciousness.
In the audio format I'm not typically a fan of dual narrators, but in this case it worked really well. Ward would voice some descriptive text, and then Dawkins would respond to it, and sometimes even correct it due to the revised editions. This made it feel like a school lecture (read the book, then discuss), except that it's one of those rare classes where you can tell that the teacher truly loves being a teacher.
This is a long book, but the basic idea is that replicators (in our case genes) are the entities selected by evolution. That might sound either obvious or overly nuanced, especially to a non-biologist, but the sequence of real-world examples and thought experiments kept it interesting. I enjoyed this book for the continuous stream of thought-provoking ideas. It touches on everything from why organisms formed to the purpose of consciousness.
In the audio format I'm not typically a fan of dual narrators, but in this case it worked really well. Ward would voice some descriptive text, and then Dawkins would respond to it, and sometimes even correct it due to the revised editions. This made it feel like a school lecture (read the book, then discuss), except that it's one of those rare classes where you can tell that the teacher truly loves being a teacher.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. This is the twenty-second book on the poster. As with most classics and non-fictions, I knew I was going to struggle with it, and I did. I felt stupid thorough the whole book.
The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene’s eye view of evolution – a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research.
I never studied science pass high school level and honestly don’t care about the genes or anything like that. I read this book because it’s part of the 100 books. This book was a chore to read. I barely understood this book with all the fractions and the anecdotes, ended up confusing me. I did try hard to get into this book, but it just hurt my brain. It's probably a great textbook but as a book with no context, I was lost. A lot of the bad reviews are to do with the science of it, but I could not ask you if the science was correct or outdated because I have no clue.
This book reminds me of why I mainly read fantasy or romance because my head was gone.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
informative
slow-paced
Good use of analogy, really aids the conceptual understanding.
CHAP 1:
- Bodies are machines programmed to do whatever is best for our genes as a whole
- EVOLUTION IS BLIND TO THE FUTURE
- Biased towards our own species - same rules don't apply - but does not make them exempt
- Called 'The Selfish Gene' bc gene is most important unit of natural selection and survival of fitting - it takes on this small scale between alleles as opposed to between species
- Genes have unconscious motives; only care about their own longevity not reproductive success and its relatives
CHAP 2:
- Nothing actually wants to evolve, it is the mistakes in replication that allows for it. We only think it’s good bc we are the product
- Early replicators = our founding fathers
- Replicators discovered how to protect themselves from competition, perhaps chemically or by building physical wall of protein around themselves. May be how first living cells came about
- The ancient replicators now go by name of GENES, and like the protein coat, we are their survival machines
CHAP 3:
- You do not pass your knowledge onto your children through a genetic means - every generation starts from scratch
- Mimicry ~ nasty tasting butterflies are coloured so fine tasting ones copy their look
- Gene is not indivisible but is seldom divided
- Genes are immortal - lives in its copies not in its atoms
- We are not stable enough through evolutionary time
- Genes are only competing w its alleles, not other genes in environment. But effect of gene depends on environment
- Genes tend to postpone their death til after repro. Ones that don’t = lethal genes
CHAP 4:
- Systems of communication are not only exploited for the own ends interspecifically, but also intra-specifically
- Genes differ between individuals of same species. Bc all animal interactions involve a conflict of interest, they too will turn on each other, employing deception at whatever cost.
CHAP 5:
- Aggression is misunderstood
- Animals do not fight to kill as often as presumed - fighting takes up energy and time and is not always advantageous - cost-benefit calculation takes place (wait-and-hope strategy)
- ESS - evolutionary stable strategy - determines who fights who based on if strategy is stable or not, i.e. why lions don’t fight other lions
- Genes tend to compliment one another, to reach an equilibrium depending on demand available
CHAP 6:
Gene might be able to assist replicas of itself sitting in other bodies. This = individual altruism brought about by gene selfishness.
CHAP 7:
- Reducing birth rates for good of group as whole
- Groups that do this are less likely to go extinct
- Social life = mechanism of popn regulation = territoriality and dominance hierarchies
- Increased bearing is paid for in less efficient caring
- Welfare state is unnatural but altruistic system
- Altruistic systems are unstable bc open to abuse by selfish individuals
CHAP 8:
- Children are selfish (battle of the generations)
- Blackmailing tactic from child to parent
- We must teach children altruism bc is not part of biological nature
CHAP 11: MEMES
- Cultural evolution is only shown through humans, separating us from rest of the animal kingdom
- Darwinism is too big for the context of the gene
- Meme = replicator for soup of human culture, constantly mutating (altering)
- Meme = basis of everyone’s idea of revolution, but everyone’s idea is different in expansion
- We are created by genes and cultures by memes
- Memes and genes last after death, but memes last longer bc genes passed down by generation is reduced but motifs carry on through time
- We have the power as humans to defy selfish genes and memes for genuine, disinterested altruism
CHAP 12:
Nice guys finish first - mutualistic cooperation - blood donation = disinterested altruism or biased to old friends?
CHAP 1:
- Bodies are machines programmed to do whatever is best for our genes as a whole
- EVOLUTION IS BLIND TO THE FUTURE
- Biased towards our own species - same rules don't apply - but does not make them exempt
- Called 'The Selfish Gene' bc gene is most important unit of natural selection and survival of fitting - it takes on this small scale between alleles as opposed to between species
- Genes have unconscious motives; only care about their own longevity not reproductive success and its relatives
CHAP 2:
- Nothing actually wants to evolve, it is the mistakes in replication that allows for it. We only think it’s good bc we are the product
- Early replicators = our founding fathers
- Replicators discovered how to protect themselves from competition, perhaps chemically or by building physical wall of protein around themselves. May be how first living cells came about
- The ancient replicators now go by name of GENES, and like the protein coat, we are their survival machines
CHAP 3:
- You do not pass your knowledge onto your children through a genetic means - every generation starts from scratch
- Mimicry ~ nasty tasting butterflies are coloured so fine tasting ones copy their look
- Gene is not indivisible but is seldom divided
- Genes are immortal - lives in its copies not in its atoms
- We are not stable enough through evolutionary time
- Genes are only competing w its alleles, not other genes in environment. But effect of gene depends on environment
- Genes tend to postpone their death til after repro. Ones that don’t = lethal genes
CHAP 4:
- Systems of communication are not only exploited for the own ends interspecifically, but also intra-specifically
- Genes differ between individuals of same species. Bc all animal interactions involve a conflict of interest, they too will turn on each other, employing deception at whatever cost.
CHAP 5:
- Aggression is misunderstood
- Animals do not fight to kill as often as presumed - fighting takes up energy and time and is not always advantageous - cost-benefit calculation takes place (wait-and-hope strategy)
- ESS - evolutionary stable strategy - determines who fights who based on if strategy is stable or not, i.e. why lions don’t fight other lions
- Genes tend to compliment one another, to reach an equilibrium depending on demand available
CHAP 6:
Gene might be able to assist replicas of itself sitting in other bodies. This = individual altruism brought about by gene selfishness.
CHAP 7:
- Reducing birth rates for good of group as whole
- Groups that do this are less likely to go extinct
- Social life = mechanism of popn regulation = territoriality and dominance hierarchies
- Increased bearing is paid for in less efficient caring
- Welfare state is unnatural but altruistic system
- Altruistic systems are unstable bc open to abuse by selfish individuals
CHAP 8:
- Children are selfish (battle of the generations)
- Blackmailing tactic from child to parent
- We must teach children altruism bc is not part of biological nature
CHAP 11: MEMES
- Cultural evolution is only shown through humans, separating us from rest of the animal kingdom
- Darwinism is too big for the context of the gene
- Meme = replicator for soup of human culture, constantly mutating (altering)
- Meme = basis of everyone’s idea of revolution, but everyone’s idea is different in expansion
- We are created by genes and cultures by memes
- Memes and genes last after death, but memes last longer bc genes passed down by generation is reduced but motifs carry on through time
- We have the power as humans to defy selfish genes and memes for genuine, disinterested altruism
CHAP 12:
Nice guys finish first - mutualistic cooperation - blood donation = disinterested altruism or biased to old friends?