https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/276449081746915328 (5 December 2012)
Twitter
Source: The Selfish Gene
Quotes from book
The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene is a 1976 book on evolution by Richard Dawkins, in which the author builds upon the principal theory of George C. Williams's Adaptation and Natural Selection . Dawkins uses the term "selfish gene" as a way of expressing the gene-centred view of evolution , popularising ideas developed during the 1960s by W. D. Hamilton and others. From the gene-centred view, it follows that the more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other.
Preface to the first edition
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989)
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 4. The Gene machine
Context: Survival machines that can simulate the future are one jump ahead of survival machines that who can only learn of the basis of trial and error. The trouble with overt trial is that it takes time and energy. The trouble with overt error is that it is often fatal.... The evolution of the capacity to simulate seems to have culminated in subjective consciousness. Why this should have happened is, to me, the most profound mystery facing modern biology.
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 1. Why Are People?
Context: Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have a chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to do.
“The genes are the master programmers, and they are programming for their lives.”
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 4. The Gene machine
“We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.”
Source: The Selfish Gene
“Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are all born selfish.”
Source: The Selfish Gene
“Unfortunately, however much we may deplore something, it does not stop being true.”
Source: The Selfish Gene
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 6. Genesmanship
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 6. Genesmanship
“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?
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 6. Genesmanship
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 4. The Gene machine
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 7. Family planning
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 2. The replicators
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 1. Why Are People?
