Selfish Gene Theory

The idea that evolution is about the survival of particular genes, and not necessarily that of individual creatures. See RichardDawkins TheSelfishGene

Note! At first glance, it appears that evolution is entirely about selfishness - which flies in the face of what many folks have been brought up to believe. This, however, is not true. While it's a gene against gene world out there, as it has been shown in many species, co-operation is an awesome way to get to where you want to go. From the tightly coupled multi-cellular organism, to complex societies of bees, ants, people, what have you.

Yes - Dawkins talks about how apparently altrustic behaviour at the organism level can be traced back to selfishness at the gene level.

Please don't raise Dawkin's pseudo-scientific ramblings to the level of "theory".

Dawkins may seem to be somewhat pseudo-scientific because of his tendency to rant and rail (I'd rather call him an "over-opinionated oversimplifier targeting a naive lay audience"), but the late (and great) Bill Hamilton's work on the evolution of altruism and kin selection -- which is what Dawkins bases much of his SelfishGene? work on -- is very elegant and quite widely accepted in the biological community.

However, as is typical of popular delusions of and the madness of [us] scientists, Dawkins & Hamilton are losing ground in the popularity polls, and David S. Wilson's and others' notions of multi-level selection are gaining ground with some very nice recent experiments. Basically, these indicate that genes are not the only level at which evolutionary selection operates, and that communities, ecosystems, or organisms can also be selected.

Now I will agree that Dawkins's thoughts on on memes are troublesome and foolish, and definitely pseudo-scientific. But let's not confound the good biology with the bad "memetics." For reasons already discussed in MemesShmemes, that's pseudo-science. -- BillTozier

CategoryBiology