X-Symbiosis

 Domain of danger: that area of ground in which any point is nearer to that individual than it is to any other individual.

Reciprocal altruism: behavior in which one organism provides a benefit to another and then altruism is "payed" back. It is the principle of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours".

Symbiosis

Richard Dawkins explains organisms' social behavior through their selfishness in chapter ten of The Selfish Gene. He explains "the important idea of reciprocal altruism, the principle of 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours'". All organisms have self interests and they do all they can to achieve them, even though many seem to work for the good of the group. In reality survival machines act as their selfish genes stimulate them to for their self benefit. This belief is contradicted by reciprocal altruism and the sociality between suckers, cheats, and grudgers. If genes' goal is to survive, then they do all they can to survive themselves, not others. If a gazelle in a herd notices a predator, what it really tries to do is minimize its domain of danger. Hawkins writes "The selfish-herd model in itself has no place for cooperative interactions. There is no altruism here, only selfish exploitation by each individual of every other individual," and he is right. Like the gazelles, I would also try to minimize my danger if there is a threat. For example, If I am walking in the street and suddenly see a man shoot a gun, I will run to where he is not directed. My escape would probably call the attention of the shooter, as the one of the gazzelle's predator, but it is a "competition to see who can jump the highest, the loser being the one chosen by the predator," ultimately a competition of survival.

Easy money

Symbiotic relationships are interactions between different species of organisms, for their own benefit. Dawkins explains symbiosis or mutualism with different examples. The most clear example is the relationship between ants and aphids, where ants protect aphids, and ants "milk" the plant sap aphids extract. The most interesting sociology studied by Dawkins in this chapter is the symbiosis between grudgers, suckers, and cheats. I do not know what population predominates, but I assure grudgers are very common. They are everywhere. These survival machines are not altruistic, but rather self-interested. Grudgers are eventually helped in their loofa because they need it, and then they only help those who have helped them. People borrow money to those who have borrowed them money before, but they don't just borrow money to anyone. Chapter ten of The Selfish Gene tells us to expect that individual survival machines will act for their own interests and to maximize their own security. Usually this selfishness overcomes altruism in its different forms. 

That Which Survives

My analogy of survival machine

"Inmortal coils", chapter two of Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene states every living organism, from humans to viruses, is a survival machine that hosts the same kind of replicator as every other organism: DNA. "DNA can be regarded as a set of instructions for how to make a body," (page 22) is Dawkins' definition of DNA, but the importance of these replicators is also explained because it is where genes reside. "Genes are at least partly responsible for their own survival in the future, because their survival depends on the efficiency of the bodies in which they live and which they help build," explains Dawkins. I recall my Biology class with Ms. Blesgraeft in which she explained Darwin's survival of the fittest does not state the fittest are the strongest or those superiors to the rest, but rather the one that mostly passes its genes. It is each survival machine that has the duty of making its genes survive even when it dies and they way of accomplishing it is with sexual reproduction. My parents have successfully made their genes survive by passing them on to me, but if I want them to survive I must reproduce. Dawkins explains crossing over as the process of swapping bits of chromosome (alleles) in the formation of an offspring. He states there are dominant and recessive alleles that can or can not be active in the offspring. These could live for a million years, but their survival is very difficult. 

Genes compete with their alleles for their survival and ultimately in regards to genes, altruism is bad and selfishness good. Dawkins expands on this idea saying any gene that that increases its survival chances, tends to survive. I can say that my father's genes that affect growth definitely were altruistic in my offspring. While my dad measures 1.87 meters, my mom measures 1.60 meters and I 1.85 meters. The height affecting genes from my father are surviving instead of my mom's. Dawkins writes "The gene is the basic unit of selfishness," (page 36) and in my case I can not deny it. Being the unit that make up life, genes are the first form of selfishness. 

The Erroneous Primeval Soup

        In the second chapter of The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins explains how life and evolution began then. In the beginning everything was simple and there were no complex compounds. Dawkins writes everything began, "At some point a particularly remarkable molecule was formed by accident," (page fifteen) and a molecule capable of copying itself was formed. This was the first Replicator, or gene within an organism. As replicators replicated, again mistakes happened. These are essential for evolution, populating the "primeval soup" with a variety of replicators. Dawkins claims all replicating molecules have descended from that first replicator, making us humans relatives to every other species. The mistakes in evolution have given the opportunity for variety. It was not good or bad, but it has been necessary for bringing all leaving organisms in existence the way they are. 

Dawkins explains the status of the "ancient replicators" today because  "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 puttied world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control". These are in me and every other existing organism, but Dawkins presents us as "survival machines". Is that all we are? The former replicator had an advantage over the rest of the molecules from the primordial soup, in what today is a competition of survival of the fittest. It began with simple molecules and is now in animals, humans, bacteria and every other organism. It amazes me to be uncertain of what molecule humans come from because if we do come from the same gene, we are relatives of fungi, bacteria and even domesticated animals. It is also amusing how a structure as perfect and organized as the DNA double helix developed from a mistake. Will we ever know how to do these type of mistakes?

How come he was also a mistake...