The Selfish Gene is hailed as a scientific masterpiece and
whilst it is not directly linked to medicine it is of huge importance and for
me significance for anyone who wants to venture into medicine. Medicine is the
joining of the study of science with the social impact of working with
patients, so therefore to not read this book purely for the fact it is not
specifically medical would be wrong. The book deals with evolution, the way in
which genes utilise us the survival machines to survive and live an immortal
life as possible. Dawkins creates a book that explains seemingly complex
scientific concepts without the use of any real scientific language and no
mathematics; he explains ideas of genetics without the language of a
geneticist, hence making the whole book extremely accessible and enjoyable to
read for anyone. Therefore I agree with W.D Hamilton who states that ‘this book
should be read, can be read, by almost anyone’.
For me the book has given me a new outlook on life. Not the
pessimistic outlook and existential crisis that it has given so many, but in
fact an eye opening outlook. To view evolution as a product of genes wanting to
survive and not organisms is refreshing and an idea that is completely new to
me, as throughout school whilst learning about evolution in biology lessons I
have always been told that natural selection favours characteristics that allow
survival of the organism, the idea that it is in fact the genes that are
attempting to survive and are controlling us to an extent is never mentioned. I found the first few chapters to be the
most interesting, in particular the second chapter ‘the replicators’ as I have
always been haunted with the question of how did chemicals evolve to become
complex organisms that roam Earth today. I was fascinated to learn of
replicator chemicals that lived in the primeval soup and how over time they
created survival machines in order to populate the soup further, and these
survival machines eventually evolved to become the modern day organisms. If
anything the whole book has answered many of my questions regarding evolution
and the mechanisms behind it. However, similarly the book has answered
questions that I did not realise I had such as how can predators and prey
co-exist? How altruism evolved? Why we have so many or so few children? The
list is endless, and all the while the book introduces new ideas to me from
explanation of memes (‘the seemingly
self-replicating pool of art and science, literature and music, knowledge,
folklore and platitude that survives with each human life’) to why we
protect our family members more often than strangers.
