72 Hour Book Read Selfish Gene Summary
My Selfish Gene Notes
Replicators began not merely to exist but to construct for themselves containers, vehicles for their continued existence. The replicators that survived were the ones that built survival machines for themselves to live in. We are those survival machines, they created us by in their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They’ve come a long way, those replicators, and they go by the new name of genes and we are their survival machines.
Our DNA lives inside our bodies – Volumes equals chromosomes – Pages equals genes.
I thought this was interesting from the book. Dawkins says the role of the human programmer (the actual person who programs a computer), is one compared to a father and son. The father teaches his son how to play chess by telling him the basic needs of the game. He doesn’t play the game for him.
On page 60, Dawkins says that our genes are the primary policy makers, but our brain is the executive. We consciously make executive decisions with our brain, where we are going to live, what we eat, wear, and do, but the decisions we make executively with our brain is made from a pool of our genetic makeup. In other words, we make decisions with what we have to work with. If you’re 5’0, you’ll probably make the executive decision not to play professional basketball, however, that decision was also made by your policy maker, your genes.
Ultimately, we as a species, are a selfish machine, programmed to do whatever it its we feel best for our genes to successfully replicate.
Go to your local library to borrow a copy of this book and take a healthy read of it and see what you derive from it. It certainly gives major insight on life.
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