Rating: Summary: DAWKINS - WHAT CONTROLS THE EVOLVE IN EVOLUTION Review: There are some REALLY big questions like "HOW DOES EVOLUTION WORK." Dawkins provides a believable model that links the simple replication of Genes to the evolving changes of advanced life forms. He achieved his goal of making the book readable and understandable while getting the technical details across. This is must reading for anyone pursuing an understanding of how life evolves.
Rating: Summary: Don't buy the hardcover! Go find the paperback page! Review: This book should live in every drawer of every hotel room in the world. The one true "meaning of life" is contained within -
but be prepared, you may never see things the same. We, and all animals, are disposable vehicles for the blind selfish
replicators called genes. Forget about the Celestine Prophecies - This is reality. You will believe. For excerpts, reviews,
articles, interviews and much more please visit my RICHARD DAWKINS WEBSITE at: --->
http://www.spacelab.net/~catalj <---| John Catalano
Rating: Summary: The one book that everyone should read (period!) Review: This book should live in every drawer of every hotel room in
the world. The one true "meaning of life" is contained within
- but be prepared, you may never see things the same. We,
and all animals, are disposable vehicles for the blind
selfish replicators called genes. Forget about the Celestine Prophecies -
This is reality. You will believe.
For excerpts, reviews, articles, interviews and much more please visit my RICHARD
DAWKINS WEBSITE at: ---> http://www.spacelab.net/~catalj <---| John Catalano
Rating: Summary: The best explaination of modern evolutionary theory around. Review: If I were limited to recommending only a single book in the course of my lifetime, this would be the book. Dawkins arguments are lucid, compelling, and thought provoking, and I would urge everyone interesting in knowing the place of life in the universe to read this book
Rating: Summary: Have you ever slept on a book? Review: This one is to keep not close to your pillow, but even under it
Rating: Summary: We are our genes' way of making more genes. Review: Brilliant explanation of the selfish-gene concept. The first book to describe the concept of the meme
Rating: Summary: Essential Review: Reading this book today, one can easily forget how revolutionary it was. Many of the new, controversial ideas inside are now accepted scientific dogma; memes now have their own entire field of study. Enlightening and exciting for both the layperson and expert, if you haven't read it yet, you're missing out!
Rating: Summary: Only for layman and non-thinking reading public Review: Richard Dawkins is our modern day human parasitoid who grows his (unwarranted) fame as en evolutionary biologist and theorist by feeding off the researches (he never did any that are groundbreaking) and insights of other, more eminent yet low profile academics, like his fellow Oxford colleague, William Hamilton.
Go read the books by Hamilton, Narrow Roads to Gene Land, to get a REAL feel of the giant strides that biology has made since Darwin, with or without Dawkins.
Rating: Summary: Authorative and eloquent Review: With The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins achieves that rare balance between scientific knowledge and emotional intrigue. It would be hard for even those wholly opposed to the Darwinian way of thinking to prevail in an argument with the ideas and rationale Dawkins puts forth in the selfish gene. The Selfish Gene is written for the layman and the experienced scientist alike. The first time I read The Selfish Gene I was a freshman in college, yet I find the material so meaningful that, even now as an experienced scientist, I have re-read it uncountable times. I am a devoted fan of Richard Dawkins, and The Selfish Gene is what started it all. If you are wondering if you should read The Selfish Gene, the answer is that, by virtue of this mere interest in the subject, you probably should; it is a gold-standard in evolution literature.
Rating: Summary: A Fantastic View on the Meaning of Life Review: Throughout the history of mankind, people has been asking ' where are we from? ' and 'what is the meaning of life?' There has been philosophical, biological, sociological, theological... models trying to explain these questions. In 'The Selfish Gene', Dawkins has made an interesting as well as astounding explanation which interweaves the concept of natural selection and competition by Darwin, and the understanding of genes by Scientists since discovery of DNA by Watson. I believe this is by far the best description. There may be modification of the theory in the coming years, decades or centuries, but the basic principle would undoubtedly follow the track set by Darwin, Dawkins and the many scholars pursing natural selection.
Meme is an interesting idea which looks at the evolution of cultures, religions and ideas at a microscopic view. Comparing memes to genes, I find that they are both selfish in the sense that their ultimate goal is to replicate ( the biological basis of the meaning of life ). However, they both lure host ( or I should say the machine) to copy them by giving the human beings ( and probably animals too) the metaphysical basis of the meaning of life: The Sense of Well-being. You feel satisfied after eating, having sex, conquering enemies, singing sweet songs, imitating the work of masters ( esp parents at the start), learning injustice would be rectified, spending money... The list is endless. Gene and meme may cooperate ( keeping fit is good for health ) or antagonize (contraception, die for religion ). All over the world we can see the end-reults of various combination of synergistic/ antagonistic actions of the two.
In summary, I highly recommend this book to all human beings. It may not answer the question of 'how the primeveal soup was formed' and ' does God really exist ', but it stimulates us to re-consider the divine validity of faith.
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