Immortal Cooperation
Book Review: Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene", Oxford University Press, 2016 (40th anniversary edition). If the name Richard Dawkins rings a bell, it might be because he is a prominent atheist and author of The God Delusion . But he is also a well-respected evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society. The book that launched him to fame, all the way back in 1976, was The Selfish Gene , which today can be bought in its 40th anniversary edition. It has been recommended as reading for aspiring rationalists, and following Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" I've been more keen on natural sciences. So, today I'll explain to you the hype behind The Selfish Gene . The first thing to address is the title, since it tends to confuse people. This is not a book about how people are selfish; it is a book about how genes are "selfish" in the sense that they care only about increasing thei