Hello and HAPPY DAY! Have you reminded yourself to
slow down today? To reduce the noise? To
listen?
My name is Igor, SF Walker. I am here to remind
people to slow down. To reduce the noise.
To walk their lives into a natural flow.
Welcome back to the Book of the Week series.
Every week as I read another amazing title,
I share it with the world. Today we look at:
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The argument of this book is that we, and
all other animals, are machines created by
our genes. Like successful gangsters, our
genes have survived, in some cases for millions
of years, in a highly competitive world. This
entitles us to expect certain qualities in
our genes. Dawkins will argue that a predominant
quality to be expected in a successful gene
is ruthless selfishness.
It goes ever further making the universal
love and the welfare of the species as a whole
are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary
sense. So, let us try to teach generosity
and altruism, because we are born selfish.
Let us understand what our own selfish genes
are up to, because we may then at least have
the chance to upset their designs, something
that no other species has ever aspired to.
Among animals, man is uniquely dominated by
culture, by influences learned and handed
down. Where do you stand in the debate over
‘nature versus nurture’ as determinants
of human attributes?
Curiously, peace-time appeals for individuals
to make some small sacrifice in the rate at
which they increase their standard of living
seem to be less effective than war-time appeals
for individuals to lay down their lives.
What Dawkins argues is that the fundamental
unit of selection, and therefore of self-interest,
is not the species, nor the group, nor even,
strictly, the individual. It is the gene,
the unit of heredity.
An individual body seems discrete enough while
it lasts, but alas, how long is that? Each
individual is unique. You cannot get evolution
by selecting between entities when there is
only one copy of each entity! Sexual reproduction
is not replication. Just as a population is
contaminated by other populations, so an individual’s
posterity is contaminated by that of his sexual
partner. Your children are only half you,
your grandchildren only a quarter you. In
a few generations the most you can hope for
is a large number of descendants, each of
whom bears only a tiny portion of you—a
few genes—even if a few do bear your surname
as well.
We shall continue to treat the individual
as a selfish machine, programmed to do whatever
is best for its genes as a whole. This is
the language of convenience. The fundamental
unit of selection is not the species, nor
the group, nor even, strictly, the individual.
It is the gene, the individual is too large
and too temporary a genetic unit.
Is the assumption that the important thing
in evolution is the good of the species (or
the group) rather than the good of the individual
(or the gene) erroneous?
The more clearly we understand the selfishness
of the genetic process, the better qualified
we shall be to teach the merits of generosity
and co-operativeness and all else that works
for the common good.
If you have enjoyed this video, please do
like it. Share it with the world. Subscribe
to my channel. You can find a direct link
to this book in the description below. Get
it. Read.
Thank you Love&Respect
