The Selfish Gene

Dawkins repeatedly likens animals to robots, efficient machines. Instead of turning to superstition or tradition to explain people’s origins and behaviors, Dawkins invokes mechanical explanations.

A human is viewed as a protective robot for replicating molecules, genes. The replicating molecules themselves are viewed as machines, for making fast and accurate copies of a stable structure. Dawkins invokes comparisons to machines including vehicles, computers, and various industrial machines.

Dawkins compares organisms to a large building. Each room (cell) contains the entire blueprint for the organism (DNA). The genetic code constructs large buildings to house itself, protecting the replicators from the environment.

Dawkins compares genetic code to text. Each chromosome represents a large volume. A gene approximately represents a page, however it is not exactly divided as a book page, but rather extends as a lengthy line that can be chopped up and reassembled, like ticker tape. The nucleotides are like single characters.