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| _______________ |  | The Selfish Gene |  Finally I have managed to read this book which is epic for several well known reasons:
- it advocates gene-centered view of evolution which I find fairly convincing (enough to make me rethink my knowledge on that topic),
- it does so by sharp logical reasoning that is a signature of all Dawkins' books. The text could almost be translated (back) to mathematical equations. No doubt, Dawkins ran many simulations on his computer while constructing this argument,
- it uses principles of game theory to explain what goes really on in evolution,
- it is the book that first widely introduced the analogy between genes and memes; even better - it is the book that introduced the very word of meme if not the whole concept itself.
But two things stroke me.
Reading about animals' behavior I am left with an impression that humans didn't really evolve that far onto the evolutionary scale as we might think. Theoretical, experimental and observational examples exhibit a very complex behavior patterns that resemble our own species indeed. We might have developed a huge cortex to solve equations and compose music, but our social behavior isn't that different from any other particular animal.
And secondly; in face of all conspiracy theorists, Dawkins' models of simulated game theory show, that you don't need conspiracy of (a rich) elite to act as it acts. Lions have never had a meeting on which they agreed not to eat each other. Each of them behaves in a fashion that maximizes the prosperity of his genes and that includes not eating fellow lions. Theoretical lions that did not have a gene for that strategy had a tendency to eat each other, presumably before they could make babies which would also eat each other. Their genes didn't generate behavior that would be evolutionary stable, so they died out in the process. Lions that are left today are the survivors. I am really glad to find a prominent book that (mathematically) proved what I have known for a while; in most cases there is no conspiracy going on because there is no need for it. Things work out for themselves if every member of the group takes care for his own selfish interest (under certain rules of the game they/we play everyday).
I strongly recommend reading. | | | | | |
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