Science
by Richard Dawkins
Who is evolution working for?
Why would a worker bee die stinging an intruder, and spend her life raising her sisters instead of young of her own? Richard Dawkins, an Oxford zoologist, answers by changing the question. Stop asking what's good for the animal, or for its species. Ask what's good for its genes.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Dawkins goes back to the early Earth, when a molecule formed by chance that could copy itself. He calls it a replicator. The copies weren't always perfect, and the better copiers spread. Some built protective walls. Over billions of years those walls became bodies, which he calls survival machines.
Genes have no minds or plans. When Dawkins calls a gene selfish, he means its effects help copies of itself spread, at the expense of other versions of the same gene. It describes a result counted over many generations, and says nothing about motives.
A gene that makes you help relatives can spread, because they're likely to carry copies of it. A brother or sister has an even chance of sharing any one of your genes, a cousin much less. Biologists call this kin selection, and it explains a lot of kindness in nature.
Near the end, Dawkins suggests genes may not be the only replicators. Tunes and catchphrases get copied too, jumping from brain to brain by imitation. He coined a word for such a unit of culture, the meme. The catchiest memes spread, whether or not they're true or useful.
The gene's view
Natural selection works on genes, rather than on individuals or whole species.
Survival machines
Our bodies are survival machines that genes build to carry themselves forward.
Kin
A selfish gene can still make an animal kind, because helping relatives helps shared genes.
Nice guys
Being nice pays off when the same animals meet again and again.
Memes
Ideas spread and copy themselves much like genes. Dawkins named them memes.
A story from the book
Robert Axelrod, a political scientist, ran a contest between computer programs playing a game of cooperate-or-cheat, round after round. The simplest entry, Tit for Tat, won. It cooperated on its first move, then copied whatever the other player had just done. Dawkins uses it to show how cooperation can evolve.
Hot take · true or myth?
In the long run, being nice is a losing strategy in nature.
Myth. In Robert Axelrod's computer tournament, strategies that never cheated first did best overall. Dawkins added a chapter about it to later editions, called Nice Guys Finish First.
One thing to try
Next time a wildlife programme says an animal does something for the good of its species, pause it. Ask Dawkins's question instead. How would a gene for that behaviour end up with more copies of itself? Try it on one animal this week and see which answer holds up.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The Selfish Gene comes with a Hot Take round and a Name That Idea round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWho is evolution working for? Why would a worker bee die stinging an intruder, and spend her life raising her sisters instead of young of her own? Richard Dawkins, an Oxford zoologist, answers by changing the question. Stop asking what's good for the animal, or for its species. Ask what's good for its genes.
It began with a copier; Selfish is a figure of speech; Why relatives help each other; Ideas that copy themselves.
Next time a wildlife programme says an animal does something for the good of its species, pause it. Ask Dawkins's question instead. How would a gene for that behaviour end up with more copies of itself? Try it on one animal this week and see which answer holds up.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The Selfish Gene in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Hot Take round and a Name That Idea round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
