Survival machines represent all the different organisms in the world. Every living being is a survival machine, including cells, viruses, algae, parasites, beetles, mice, whales, humans, and everything in between. Dawkins calls living things survival machines because he believes that organisms are built by genes for the sole purpose of facilitating those gene’s survival. Genes, as Dawkins defines them, are small bits of DNA that can clone themselves. Cells are a group of genes that has built a protective wall around itself by synthesizing protein. The protective wall keeps the genes safe from invasion by other molecules. A cell, therefore, is a very simple example of a “machine” that helps DNA—or, genes—stay intact, or “survive.” Dawkins thinks that over time, genes built more and more complex and efficient machines to protect its molecules, and that’s what all the organisms on earth are. This viewpoint supports the argument that all living things are just “machines” programmed by genes to help the genes “survive.” Dawkins thinks this is a profound claim, because it means that genes (and not organisms) are the things that are evolving in this world. Humans, in a sense, like all organisms, are just by-products of this process.
Survival Machines Quotes in The Selfish Gene
We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve selfish molecules known as genes.
They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.
It is as though, in every room of a gigantic building, there was a book-case containing the architect’s plans for the entire building. […] Incidentally, there is of course no ‘architect.’ The DNA instructions are assembled by natural selection.
The oarsmen are the genes. The rivals for each seat in the boat are alleles potentially capable of occupying the same slot along the length of a chromosome. Rowing fast corresponds to building a body which is successful at surviving. The wind is the environment. The pool of alternative candidates is the gene pool. As far as the survival of any one body is concerned, all its genes are in the same boat.
Nowadays the intricate mutual co-evolution of genes has proceeded to such an extent that the communal nature of an individual survival machine is virtually unrecognizable. Indeed, many biologists do not recognize it, and will disagree with me.
Survival Machines Symbol Timeline in The Selfish Gene
