Reddit Reddit reviews The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science)

We found 5 Reddit comments about The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science)
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5 Reddit comments about The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science):

u/panamafloyd · 2 pointsr/atheism

Read/watch more Sagan. He really wanted to talk more about science than superstition. Even the social/political situation about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469

Also, have you read any of Dawkins' books about biology, rather than superstition? He really didn't start directly attacking religion until he realized that anti-reality stuff was so prevalent in society.

I have to admit, first time I read this one..I had to have a dictionary open alongside it. :D

https://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary-Landmark-Science-ebook/dp/B01GI5F2FS/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=richard+dawkins&qid=1554875427&s=books&sr=1-2

> Although, I'm struggling with the point to existence

I have to be honest. I really don't understand why so many people have this concern. I do understand that they feel it's legitimate, I just don't understand why.

I suspect my personal experience is behind that..I grew up Southern Baptist, and my first realization was full-tilt "I'M FREE!"

I don't care if there's no 'greater celestial reason' for my existence. I exist. I might as well do the most I can with it.

I love good food. I love sportscars. I love a woman's company. I love my daughter. I love soccer.

> and why the universe is the way it is.

I really don't know..but only the religious people in my life act as if that's some great crime. Personally..I'll just read the works of the people who are actually looking for it, instead of performing mental fellatio upon the pack of lying shamans who claim they actually know.

> I simply don't want to believe that I'm just an accident

Well, you're not! Go study more biology. That old Christian whine about "..the Earth is perfectly tuned for life!!" is pathetic.

The Earth came first. We're here because we come from it. Of course it's 'perfect' for us. It's our mommy.

> I'm done being force-fed information. I want to find out for myself.

And you can, if you just get past the fear. And I know that the fear can really blow around your mind for awhile. Wishing you well with it.

u/PermianWestern · 2 pointsr/scifiwriting

>I want some sort of rhyme and reason for creatures to exist where they do, and I'm not too familiar with evolution and how it would factor into this.

I think to some degree you need to "write what you know", that is, write about subjects you're familiar with. However, a bit of research can buff you up quite a bit.

Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene is a transformative popular science book that explains why form follows function, and it's a surprisingly quick read.


Have a look through Dougal Dixon's After Man, The New Dinosaurs, etc. for inspiration. Also, browse Deviant Art and shamelessly steal the ideas of artists creating alien lifeforms.

u/MeeHungLowe · 2 pointsr/atheism

Our genes are selfish...

u/legalpothead · 1 pointr/scifiwriting

>I want to create an alien planet and have life evolve on it. The problem is I am not a scientist and I want my aliens to be believable without going too deep into hard sci-fi territory.





Here's the thing: in writing, the rule is, write what you know. That's a general rule, but it's a good one. You want to write about subjects you're familiar with, because the confidence you have in this familiarity will show through in your writing. If you're really into Pokemon, you can write about Pokemon, and it sounds like you know what you're talking about. Readers have confidence in your authority.

I think the solution is that it's going to go to your benefit to do a bit of research, and actually study and learn a bit more about biology and evolution than you presently know.

A great primer might be Dawkins' The Selfish Gene.

You can find some great science fiction primer vids from Kurzgesagt and Artifexian. Be careful though, because it's easy to fall down the rabbit hole with both these channels...

You might also like r/worldbuilding

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>These aliens evolved on a carbon planet, and I want to know how that would impact life. I imagine life could develop without water or oxygen, but it would certainly be very different from earth.



Okay. The thing is, you want your planet to be in the Goldilocks zone, because water is liquid there. You want water to be liquid so you can have solutions with lots of dissolved stuff. Essentially, the cellular fluid in our own cells is a sort of replication of the solutions found in tide pools that first gave birth to living cells. It's probably a good idea to make your aliens composed of cells, or else they might all be ameboid in nature.

There's no such thing as a carbon planet, but you can have carbon-based lifeforms living on a rocky planet. Earth is a rocky planet, as opposed to a gas giant. Carbon is plentiful and is easy to work with, chemically. You can have photosynthetic organisms store sunlight energy as glucose, made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Glucose can also be used to make strong fibers, cellulose, which can be used as a structural material.

Beyond that, you've got a ton of leeway. To your advantage is the fact no one knows what alien life might be like. So as long as you don't break any physical laws and avoid pseudoscience, your aliens are probably going to be potentially believable.