‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins : 10 takeaways

I recently completed this pioneering and genius work on biological evolution by famed Oxford scientist and contrarian — Richard Dawkins, who is also the author of another of my favorite book, ‘The God Delusion’. The book has been extremely revealing as it helped me unbox the reasons behind why humans, animals and plants behave the way they do. Additionally the book exposes the readers to the most unusual facts in the living being ecosystem on our planet. I also believe, there can be personal takeaways if someone wants to go behind their interpersonal issues and want to understand themselves and other humans better. One important point to note is that even though this is a science book, it has been written in such an engaging fashion that one will be intrigued and before you know, and the arduous looking thick book will be over in no time. Now that we have some background about the book and what it entails, lets dive deeper into the top 10 takeaways I have to share:

1. Genes are the most primitive replicators guiding the evolution of current living population and all the human, plant and animal bodies are their survival machines: Richard Dawkins defines genes as the smallest bit of chromosomal material (further made of DNA) which lasts enough number of generations to be called a replicating unit of natural selection. Genes have three goals (Dawkins doesn’t mention why and how these goals were defined but its important to take this assumption into consideration as its the foundational concept behind the entire book) — longevity, fecundity, and fidelity. Longevity is the length of survival time, fecundity is abundance and fidelity is the accuracy of copy (deviation from original design is called mutation and that is what leads to evolution as mutated genes may or may not replace the original gene depending upon their ability to survive). But genes cannot survive on their own. They need a body to live in which protects them from external environment and any of its harmful effects. These bodies are also called survival machines and our human body is an example for thousands of genes in our body (as per the Human Genome Project, a human body has approx. 20–25K genes). So essentially, we are just carriers for these mighty replicators and our actions, emotions, feelings and consciousness are all created to serve their purpose as defined above.
2. Selfishness is survival: The word selfish generally has a negative connotation. A selfish person is said to take advantage of other people for their personal interests and generally think of every situation in life as ‘zero-sum’ game. In the context of genes, selfishness corresponds to their only needs of survival and replication. It’s less about harming other genes or organisms (unless they are rival genes or alleles which are mutated version of the gene in question).
3. Human males input less effort in rearing of children than females for a reason: We know this general trend in life (especially in case of Homo Sapiens) that women tend and care for children more earnestly than men (even though that is becoming less common these days but we all have heard stories of less involved fathers). This is due to the cost involved — of time and resources. Women have to bear their child in their womb for good 9 months where the embryo gets the nutrition and essential resources out of the mother’s body. Their eggs are also much larger and less numerous especially when compared to the sexual chromosomal material from men — the sperms. Given the high cost involved, it’s in the interest of genes in a female body to ensure the survival of the child (at least until child can reproduce) compared to men who can get away with relatively less cost even though benefit to both the parents is same — 50% genes in the body of their children.
4. There is a genetic reason why women act coy and seek courtship before committing to men — Due to the reason mentioned above, men have the unfair advantage in the reproduction game where if they are solely going ahead in the world with the goal of replicating their genes, all they have to do is to have intercourse with as many women as they can with minimal cost. However, the catch-22 is that they need a woman who is ready to have intercourse with them. Aware of this situation, female genes have ensured that women act coy and engage men in long courtship period before committing to marriage or an intercourse. This increases the cost investment from the male genes and incentivizes them to be honest and committed to their female partners.
5. Humans have same genetic relationship to their children as well their direct kins: Its generally thought that one’s children are the most valuable relationship they have. However, if we think mathematically, their direct siblings and children have exactly 50% of their genes. So logically, one must care equally for their children and siblings. There are other factors in place though like which of the relations has higher probability to reproduce further but if everything else is equal, both relationships stand at equal footing.
6. Maternal grandmothers care more about grandchildren than paternal grandmothers: This is an interesting concept on fidelity. Unless there is a DNA test, a mother is always 100% sure if the child is hers or not while a father can only trust. So from a father’s and their genes’ perspective, probability is not 100%. As a result, its only natural (genes being the underlying master here) that maternal grandmother will care more about grandchild’s wellbeing and survival than the paternal grandmother. This sounds counterintuitive but calls for observation in personal circumstances.
7. Genes created brains and consciousness for their survival: We humans are generally so proud of our brains and what we have done with it. We made ourselves master of the planet because of the mental acumen we are endowed. But endowed by whom and for what purpose? It’s the genes in our body. We have already discussed above that the human body is nothing but a survival machine for a gene in its body. But genes cannot respond fast to each an every situation happening every second or milli second in the external world. For example, if threatened by a lion attack, a gene has to interpret in real time the meaning of all sensations, create an appropriate response strategy and communicate the same to correct muscles or organs of the body. Moreover, since they don’t have a memory of their own, genes will have to conceive fresh strategy even for the most repeatable solution. So as we gradually evolved, genes helped the humans develop brain and loaded it with the faculties of memory, logic and consciousness (yes, the book claims consciousness is nothing but a product of evolution and soon AI can have a consciousness of its own — a freaky but a realistic consequence of the growth in AGI as we are seeing today ) which helps the body take decisions to prolong its and the gene’s survival.
8. Feelings are not personal: If you are one of those people who overthink into the behavior of other humans, one important takeaway from the book is that we need to keep in mind who is the master. Feelings, emotions and reactions are what survival machines produce under the influence of genes to help them achieve their goals and there is no point in taking thing personally.
9. Genetic behavior explains some unusual examples seeming cruelty in the animal kingdom: The book mentions multiple interesting anecdotes from animal and plant kingdom which are very entertaining to read. Book mentions how cuckoos, in order to reduce the cost of rearing their children, drop their eggs in the nests of their neighbors (who go on to become foster parents to their children) which is very contrary to human behavior where majority of the parents would not want to part with their children especially in their early years of growth.
10. Game theory is the underlying mathematical principle behind natural selection: By this point we know that genes choose human, plants and animal bodies as their survival machines. Different survival machines however compete for the same amount of limited resources on our planet and as genes mutate, different versions of genes or alleles fight for their survival. Which genes survive and in what proportions is understood by applying game theory principles (think Prisoner’s Dilemma) where multiple iterations eventually reach an Evolutionary Stable Strategy (aka ESS and similar concept to Nash Equilibrium).

Hope you found the above takeaways interesting and useful. For me, apart from the pointers mentioned above, I finally understand what genes are and what does it actually mean when someone says the words heredity or genetic. If you have read or plan to read the book after going through the article, do share your thoughts and perspectives in the comment below.