Selfish Gene (pg. 1-20)

These first two chapters of the book start talking about the Theory of Evolution by Charles Darwin and how his ideas opened many peoples eyes to the truth. Richard Dawkin's uses Darwin's book to explain his theory of an existent gene in all living organisms which he believes makes them selfish or altruistic. Throughout the first chapter, we learn the main difference between these two and how they can be identified by small details. Afterwards, Dawkin explains Darwin's theory on Survival of the Fittest and how this affects his own. "This line of thought can be put into vaguely Darwinian terms. Evolution works by natural selection, and natural selection means the differential survival of the 'fittest'. But are we talking about the fittest individuals, the fittest races, the fittest species, or what? For some purposes this does not greatly matter, but when we are talking about altruism it is obviously crucial. If it is species that are competing in what Darwin called the struggles for existence, the individual seems best regarded as a pawn in the game, to be sacrificed when the greater interest of the species as a whole requires it. To put it in a slightly more respectable way, a group, such as a species or a population within a species, whose individual members are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the welfare of the group, may be less likely to go extinct than a rival group whose individual members place their own selfish interest first. Therefore the world becomes populated mainly by groups consisting of self-sacrificing individuals. (The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkin, Ch. 1, pg. 7)" The second chapter of the book talks about the Replicator, which Dawkin explains as a molecule which makes copies of itself, but instead of an identical copy, it creates -what Dawkin calls- a 'negative' one. This replicator ad it's origin at the 'Primordial Soup' or widely known as the Ocean.

Connecting this book seems really simple, but choosing the correct and interesting topic is harder than I thought. I've decided to use the series Planet Earth as my link to the book. In this series we can notice a wide variety of examples of selfishness and altruism in the animal kingdom. This series contains five different DVDs, so I chose a scene from the first disc which shows both examples at their best. When the documentary emphasises on Emperor Penguins, it says that these animals will try to 'eliminate' the competition for their babies, by either pushing other penguins so they drop their eggs or stealing food from others. This selfish act makes only the chicks with strong and 'intelligent' parents survive and when grown up make part of the community. This is one of the many selfish acts which we see, but there is also altruism between the animal species and it is seen in wolves. When threatened by larger animals, a wolf is separated from the others and lures the predator away. This wild dog is a decoy and what the larger animal doesn't know is that he is going to be surrounded by the other wolves of the pack and is going to be threatened with his life. There is a high probability that this plan is successful most of the times, but basically the decoy risks his life just so the others can flee and the men of the group later catch up to this 'kamikaze' and help him out. This is why I decided to use this series as my connection, not only because the book refers to the animal kingdom, but also the examples are very clear.

- What does Darwin's theory have to do with the selfish gene?

- How does altruism affect Dawkin's theory?

- Do humanities mistakes have a connection to the selfish gene and evolution itself?

- What else affects altruism and the selfish gene?

- What are the Immortal Coils?