Good guys do win (The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
Date:	06/11/08 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very readable ; highly enjoyable

Disadvantages: Does get a bit technical at times ; very controversial

Those of you have read my review of Richard Dawkins' book, "The God Delusion", will have no illusions about the regard in which I hold the man. Yes, he can be annoying. This is not unusual with anyone who holds firm convictions about their beliefs, and yes, we atheists do have beliefs; this is not the prerogative only of those with "religious" views. Whether Dawkins' book will turn out to be a seminal work only history will decide.

Of course, where seminal works are concerned, pretty well none could be considered as Earth-shattering, as history changing as Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" (the full title is much, much longer). Published in the 19th century, it created an scientific and cultural earthquake of such magnitude that its after-shocks are still being felt today. Darwin appreciated the furore that his ideas would create and refused to publish whilst his wife, a deeply religious person, was still alive, in consideration for the anguish it would cause her.

Darwin was challenging the religious dogma that stated categorically, and would brook no dissent, that all things had been created by God. Throughout history, religious organisations, mostly because of their vested interests, have claimed a monopoly on the truth and in all cases they have eventually been proved to be wrong. Dissenters such as Galileo suffered for daring to speak out against the politico-religious orthodoxy of the time.

Darwin's dissent was to state that the evidence of his own eyes forced him to conclude that living organisms, far from having all been created by a God, had in fact evolved over a long, long time by a process that he called "natural selection". Natural selection, he defined as being the process by which organisms changed in their physical characteristics such that they either adapted to and successfully exploited their changing surroundings and so survived, thrived and multiplied, or else they didn't and so ultimately their species became extinct.

Darwin didn't really have any explanation for how it was that organisms changed in their physical characteristics from generation to generation, only that they did. He did recognise though the the process was not "intelligent". The organism didn't deliberately change itself. The process of change was essentially random and the success or otherwise of adaptation was pretty much a case of trial and error, the penalty for "error" often being extinction.

It really wasn't until the 20th century and most especially until the announcement by Watson and Crick in 1953 of the discovery of and the structure of the "Code of Life", DNA, for which in 1962 they jointly won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, that the exact mechanism by which organisms changed from generation to generation could start to be explained.

Today we know that it's all in the genes. Our genes define who and what we are. Every living organism on Earth is the product of the action of their genes. If you are a human being then things like whether you have blue eyes or brown are determined by your genes. The genes are those sections of our DNA, organised in chromosomes and found within just about every cell in our bodies, that manufacture the essential chemicals without which we could not function.

But, how did we all end up with our particular genes? Why is it that our genes make our bodies work correctly (or not as the case may be) and so provide us with the opportunity to grow to maturity and potentially to produce our own offspring? How will these offspring differ from ourselves? This is what Dawkins' book, "The Selfish Gene" is all about.

The Selfish Gene was written over 30 years ago. Our knowledge of the way in which our genes work has increased dramatically over the intervening years. Conclusions that Dawkins had to draw when he wrote the original version of the book have stood up to the revelations of recent scientific discoveries remarkably well, so demonstrating his intuitive understanding of the processes of life.

The version that I read is the 30th anniversary edition, published in 2006. What Dawkins has done with the latest version is add extra chapters that bring the reader up-to-date with the latest understanding and discoveries. He has not, however, gone back and changed anything of the earlier chapters, preferring to leave the reader to see how his own ideas have evolved.

So, this sounds like a very technical tome, one beyond the realm of the ordinary reader. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The genius of Dawkins is that he realises that most of us are fascinated by the subject but are very far from experts on the subject of genetics. The book is highly readable. Dawkins has refrained from indulging in overly technical language, preferring to explain his ideas and theories in every day terms and by using analogies from life.

If you have never understood or only had a rudimentary understanding of genetics then this book is probably the best possible introduction. I thought I understood how reproduction worked but certain aspects such as the inheritance of characteristics and how "mistakes" are made during the process always mystified me. After reading Dawkins' book I now understand at least the principles.

Right from the start, Dawkins discusses the matter of the title of the book. He explains that he had considerable difficulty with the term "selfish". It had great doubts about whether it would mislead the casual reader about the place of selfishness in the "Survival of the Fittest". He worried that it might imply some sort of intelligence in the process and that he would be challenging Darwin's conclusions. He was especially concerned that it might give the impression that our genes make us selfish in order that we can bequeath superiority to our offspring.

Dawkins especially deals in depth with the whole baffling subject of altruism. If our genes are selfish then why should anyone be altruistic when to be so would seem to offer no genetic advantage at all to our own genetic line. And yet the World is full of altruism. Through the explanation of how organisms interact, using game theory, penalty and reward, he shows how "cheating" is ultimately a very poor survival strategy. I found this section especially fascinating. It explains why in almost all situations, "Good Guys" do win. It doesn't require a religious belief or the threat of Hell.

Dawkins' big contribution to the whole debate is by way of the introduction of his own theory of how we pass on our characteristics to our successors. He introduces the concept of the "Meme". He explains that the meme is the social equivalent of the gene. Whereas the gene passes on physical characteristics, the meme passes on social characteristics; our beliefs, our characters, our loves, our hates. It is these, he proposes, that affect the way that society evolves just in the same way that our genes determine how we physically evolve. The two act together and are inseparable.

The Selfish Gene is an absorbing book and one that I can strongly recommend to all who are interested in the whole subject of why the World is the way it is. Far from leaving with us a feeling that we are at the mercy of our genes it inspires hope for Mankind and this World in which we live. Despite Global Warming, Worldwide Financial Meltdown, Genocide and host of other disasters that seem eternally to befall us, it will be our genes that will drive Life on Earth to survive and adapt and in this we all, every one of us, have a part to play.

Summary: A highly readable explanation of why we are the way we are