“The argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes.”

Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 1. Why Are People?

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Richard Dawkins 322
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author 1941

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“In other words, a record of our past is etched into our genes.”

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“We are endowed with genes which code out our reaction to beavers and otters, maybe our reaction to each other as well.”

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Context: We are endowed with genes which code out our reaction to beavers and otters, maybe our reaction to each other as well. We are stamped with stereotyped, unalterable patterns of response, ready to be released. And the behavior released in us, by such confrontations, is, essentially, a surprised affection. It is compulsory behavior and we can avoid it only by straining with the full power of our conscious minds, making up conscious excuses all the way. Left to ourselves, mechanistic and autonomic, we hanker for friends.

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“If machines knew as much about each other as we know about each other (even in our privacy), the ecology of machines would be indomitable.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

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