“Unfortunately, however much we may deplore something, it does not stop being true.”
― The Selfish Gene
― The Selfish Gene
“Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are all born selfish.”
― The Selfish Gene
― The Selfish Gene
“The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.”
― The Selfish Gene
― The Selfish Gene
“We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment.”
― The Selfish Gene
― The Selfish Gene
“Was there to be any end to the gradual improvement in the techniques and artifices used by the replicators to ensure their own continuation in the world? There would be plenty of time for improvement. What weird engines of self-preservation would the millennia bring forth? Four thousand million years on, what was to be the fate of the ancient replicators?
They did not die out, for they are past masters of the survival arts. But do not look for them floating loose in the sea; they gave up that cavalier freedom long ago. Now they swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control.
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.”
― The Selfish Gene
They did not die out, for they are past masters of the survival arts. But do not look for them floating loose in the sea; they gave up that cavalier freedom long ago. Now they swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control.
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.”
― The Selfish Gene
Winston’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Winston’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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