The Selfish Gene

Dawkins hasn’t talked much about humans yet. One of the reasons he uses “survival machine” instead of “animal” is because it includes plants and humans, so he thinks everything he’s said so far applies to humans. Still, he wonders if there’s something going on with humans that makes us different from other beings on earth. Dawkins thinks there is. “Culture” makes humans different, because “cultural transmission” gives rise to evolution, as well. If Geoffrey Chaucer tried to have a conversation with an English-speaking person today, Chaucer wouldn’t make any sense. This means that language evolves by “non genetic” means. Dawkins thinks language evolves much faster than genes do.

Cultural transmission happens in other species too. P. F. Jenkins studied saddleback bird songs in New Zealand, and discovered that their songs aren’t inherited, but learned, and slightly modified (sometimes by accident) by each generation. He called this a form of “cultural mutation.” Dawkins believes that, of all the species in the world, humans really show what cultural evolution can do.

Language, fashion, food, customs, art, architecture, engineering, and technology are all examples of cultural evolution. They function like really sped-up versions of genetic evolution. Other theorists have noticed this too, including philosopher Sir Karl Popper, geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, anthropologist T. F. Cloak, and ethologist J. M. Cullen. They argue that cultural practices have “biological advantages.” For example, tribal religion is thought to improve unity in a group, which is important for pack hunters. Dawkins, however, believes that for the case of culture, it’s necessary to throw out the “gene” as the basis of evolution. He thinks this is more Darwinian than the other explanations, because evolution is so pervasive that there’s no need for it to be restricted to genes.

Dawkins recalls that what makes genes special is that they are replicators. It might well be that on other planets based on silicone instead of carbon, or ammonia instead of water, or electronic circuits instead of organic compounds, replicators wouldn’t be DNA, but something else. If there’s any consistent law about life in the universe, it’s that “all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities. The gene, the DNA molecule, happens to be the replicating entity that prevails on our own planet.”

One need not look at alien planets to figure this out, because “a new kind of replicator has emerged on earth.” It’s still in “infancy,” floating around in primeval soup, but it’s happening at an astonishingly faster pace than genetic evolution. The new soup is “the soup of human culture.”

The replicator in the soup of human culture is something that can rapidly imitate itself. Dawkins decides to call this “unit of imitation” a meme (adapted from the Greek mimeme Examples of memes include catchy tunes, phrases, images, fashions, and ideas.

Genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by hopping from body to body via eggs and sperm. Memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by hopping from brain to brain, by a process of imitation.For example, if a scientist reads about a good idea, he’ll discuss it with colleagues and students, maybe write about it in his research articles, and mention it in his lectures. If the idea catches on, it’s “propagating itself, spreading from brain to brain.”

Another meme that’s very successful is the “God” meme. It’s a very old idea that has stayed in the cultural meme pool for a long time. Dawkins thinks memes that survive over the course of cultural evolution have strong psychological appeal. They satisfy deep questions in our minds, in some way.

Some theorists want to know why the “God” meme has psychological appeal, and whether there’s a genetic reason underlying it, but Dawkins thinks that’s a bit of a stretch. He thinks that for thousands of millions of years, the only replicator on Earth was DNA, but when the conditions arose for a new replicator, there’s no reason it has to depend upon the old one. He says that “biologists have assimilated the idea of genetic evolution so deeply that we tend to forget that it’s only one of many possible kinds of evolution.”

Memes, like genes, have varying success in the overall pool. Some memes have “brilliant” short-term success, but then fade away or die out (say, popular songs). Other memes survive a lot longer (say, Jewish laws). Memes also “mutate” in a sense: every time someone retells an idea, they tell their own version of it. In fact, mutation seems continuous with memes, whereas gene mutation is not always continuous across generations. Memes can be long or short, just like genes—they could be a whole song, or just the catchiest part of it. These become slightly different replicators (just like genes).

Dawkins wonders if memes compete for survival in the way that genes do—he thinks they do. He asks the reader to imagine the human brain is a computer. A computer has a fixed amount of memory, meaning some things have to be deleted to make room for other things. Memes are competing for “memory” or “attention” in the human brain. They also compete for television airtime, billboard space, and library shelf space. 

 Memes survive for various reasons. Fear makes ideas stick, for example, which is why religion has had such longevity as a meme. Dawkins also thinks that  “[cultural] selection favors memes that exploit their cultural environment to their own advantage.” Dawkins suggests that married priests have less time for preaching, which may be why celibacy is an effective meme in the Catholic religion. Memes can live on intact in ways that genes don’t. Genes tend to separate into different survival machines, meaning their colonies don’t stay intact. But memes can live on intact for much longer. Dawkins thinks, for example, about memes that Socrates wrote, or Leonardo da Vinci painted, or Copernicus said. 

Another thing that makes memes different from genes is that human brains have the capacity for conscious foresight. Genes don’t—they are “unconscious, blind replicators.” Even though humanity’s genes (and memes) are “selfish,” we have “the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth, and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination.” In other words, we have the capacity to cultivate altruism, through memes. Humans are unique on Earth because “we have the power to turn against our creators. We alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.”