Author : Richard Dawkins
What is it about : Our articulate author tried to put across the ideas that living organisms had simply been "vehicles" formed by the genes (replicators) inside the organisms to carry out whatever tasks were needed to propagate and survive to the next generation. For instance (my own interpreted example), the genes responsible for the human's (or flies, or cats, you name it), acute smelling ability developed such a nose so that the "vehicle" had the best equipment to smell food, dangerous preys and so on in order to pass on the "nose" genes. Moreover, such genes exerted effects over a distance (or over close contacts) to other organisms to affect changes to best suit the gene's very own survival; such as beavers building dams and cuckoo babes mesmerising their bewitched foster parents. Along the way, organisms played out various Games (as in Games Theory) with friends, foes, group and non-group members, relatives, partners to best achieve the "Evolution Stable Strategy" and hang on to dear life so the genes themselves survive another day.
Some thoughts after having read the book : Needless to say, by now, Readers of this Blog would have noticed that I had been an arm chair Darwinian/Evolutionist for a very time - this Subject had indeed been my favourite past-time over the years. I loved the Zoo-wide (as in Zoology) examples from viruses, blood-sucking bats, pigeons, insect colonies as demonstrations for cases-in-points; I loved the debates and evolution analysis on human/organisms psychology involved in parent/child conflicts, battle of the sexes, group behaviours; I loved the way this Subject produced excited arguments or calm reflections over religion, Life and human interactions; I loved the way the Author effortlessly grabbed examples from real-life such as boat rowers, doves and hawks, ants, bacterium and breathe life into these examples, to illustrate and illuminate the areas of discussion - all in all, for non-fiction books, I could read Richard Dawkins's books day and night.
Would I recommend this book to you : A great big YES ! Because I had been totally biased and completely fascinated you might say; but looking at the book objectively, you would find humour, mega-interesting stories of the "Zoo" around you (great example: Royal beheading of an ant Queen by an invading Queen, geez!), witty presentation, the Games we (organisms) played (sometimes un-wittingly) at the bequest of our genes. I would say the book definitely will alter your mind set about the world we live in.
