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jlhutch 's review for:
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
Dawkins argues for why perceiving natural selection as occurring at the individual (or worse group) level is not correct. We should be looking at things as being selected for at the genetic level. Our genes are the immortal part of us that gets passed down. All the other aspects of us are just ways we have incrementally evolved to be more effective gene vehicles. So basically we are survival machines for our immortal genes.
We come from early replicator molecules that arose out of the primeval soup (ocean of molecules). Our early evolution can be boiled down to competition between these molecules to find the right mixture of 1. fecundity (speed of replication), 2. accuracy (of replications), and 3. longevity. Think of the gene as the individual and the gene pool as the environment in which it must survive.
Dawkins likens the relationship between us and our genes to a computer and a programmer. Once the program is written, it is being run by the computer with no input from the programmer. The control genes exert over us is unconscious. They are not consciously selecting for certain changes, everything is passive. This is because genes only really control protein synthesis which is a very slow process. Dawkins proposes that things like adaptability and learning may have arisen because they increase the odds of the machine surviving. The environment is constantly changing quickly and a machine that can adapt is more likely to succeed. He also proposes that consciousness arose out of the tendency for the ability to simulate scenarios to be selected for (concept of past and future and then self arising from this).
Evolutionarily stable strategies and aggression (ch 5)
Even when it is to the mutual benefit of all to act a certain way, the unequal gain of a deviant from this "agreement" will eventually upset this way of doing things (hawk-dove example). The gene pool is trending towards an evolutionarily stable set of genes, defined as a gene pool that cannot be invaded by any new gene.
"Genesmanship" and how kinmanship fits into Selfish Gene framework (ch 6)
We come from early replicator molecules that arose out of the primeval soup (ocean of molecules). Our early evolution can be boiled down to competition between these molecules to find the right mixture of 1. fecundity (speed of replication), 2. accuracy (of replications), and 3. longevity. Think of the gene as the individual and the gene pool as the environment in which it must survive.
Dawkins likens the relationship between us and our genes to a computer and a programmer. Once the program is written, it is being run by the computer with no input from the programmer. The control genes exert over us is unconscious. They are not consciously selecting for certain changes, everything is passive. This is because genes only really control protein synthesis which is a very slow process. Dawkins proposes that things like adaptability and learning may have arisen because they increase the odds of the machine surviving. The environment is constantly changing quickly and a machine that can adapt is more likely to succeed. He also proposes that consciousness arose out of the tendency for the ability to simulate scenarios to be selected for (concept of past and future and then self arising from this).
Evolutionarily stable strategies and aggression (ch 5)
Even when it is to the mutual benefit of all to act a certain way, the unequal gain of a deviant from this "agreement" will eventually upset this way of doing things (hawk-dove example). The gene pool is trending towards an evolutionarily stable set of genes, defined as a gene pool that cannot be invaded by any new gene.
"Genesmanship" and how kinmanship fits into Selfish Gene framework (ch 6)