Envy Always Loses

In chapter 12 Dawkins analyzed the idea of a nice and nasty player . His conclusion stated that nice guys always came out ahead from those who play nasty. He demonstrated this by using various high pathetical and real life examples.  It is crucial to mention that there are two different types of games. The first one is called the “zero sum”, this is when there can only be one winner at the end of the game.  The second type is the “nonzero sum”, meaning that two parties are able to unite and come out victorious.

            Since it was proven that nice players, “not envious” come out victorious and that nasty players “envious” ended up achieving less, it seems relevant to analyze why this happened. First it is critical to know the difference between the two. Those “non envious” players are the once that are more forgiving and are happy if the other player wins as much money as they do. On the other hand “envious” players are only satisfied if they achieve more money than their opponent.  There is a very famous tale told to Colombian children so that they realize that being selfish in life accomplishes nothing. The tale tells the story of an American fisherman who was trying to find the best fishing technique in the world. He then went to Colombia to learn the secret of an important fisherman globally known. As they both went out fishing for crabs he noticed that the Colombian fisherman never put a led on the bucket were he was holding his crabs. The American then asked the Colombia why he was doing such thing since he was giving the crabs the opportunity to escape. The Colombian then answered: “They all try to escape, but they never accomplish it, this is because as soon as a crab sees another one half way up the bucket he will pull him down”.  This tale focuses on the thoughts of all those “envois” players, and how at the end of the day they accomplish nothing.  However, if humanity were to follow Dawkins theory and people started becoming less “envious” the world would become a better places were everyone’s priority would be for the greater good rather than personal accomplishments.

           

Faith

 In chapter 11 of The Selfish Gene the idea of faith is seen as a mental illness. One that can drive a person to such a state of mind that he or she might even believe that a martyr’s death can send them straight to heaven.

“ But what, after all, is faith? It is a state of mind that leads people to believe something—it doesn't matter what—in the total absence of supporting evidence.” (pg.330).

This video is an exact representation of Dawkins’s definition of faith. It demonstrates how a child at such a young age was implanted the idea that evolution is not true, that he was the product of Gods creation. The child could even swear on his life that evolution is the creation of fearless lying scientist whose only objective is to pursue common man into believes that God dose not exist. And that humans are the product of the evolution of monkeys. It is important to highlight that evolution is not base on a matter of faith but rather on true viable facts, which makes it true.

Species vs. The World

In chapter 10 Dawkins talks about the interaction between animals of different species. He does so by explaining that there relationship is extremely professional. In other words, they do this because it benefits them. This is called symbiosis. In the book the example of symbiosis given to explain the readers its function is seen through the relationship between the ants and the aphids. However, I find the relationship between the baboons and impalas to be a much clear one.

As you well know and are able to see form the picture at the right the Baboons are tree climbers, and extremely agile creature. On the other hand the Impalas are land walkers and are able to run at a fast speed when found in danger. These two creatures create a symbiosis. In times of winter when there is no food to be found on land Baboons climb the trees and through food down to the Impalas, they will also warn them when they see a predator near them. Mean while Impalas let the Baboons eat their newborn babies when food is not found and they as while warn them when they sense danger. These two animals help each other survive even though they are not from their same species. This is another great example of symbiosis.

Elucidation

Fecundity: adjective: producing or capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth; fertile

Gregarious: adjective:(of a person) fond of company; sociable: he was a popular and gregarious man.

Venture: noun: a risky or daring journey or undertaking:

Intricacy: noun the quality of being intricate

Arbitrary: adjective: based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system

Bizarre: adjective: very strange or unusual, esp. so as to cause interest or amusement

Doled: noun benefit paid by the government to the unemployed

Endow: give or bequeath an income or property to

Mosaic: noun: a picture or pattern produced by arranging together small colored pieces of hard material, such as stone, tile, or glass

Subtle: adjective so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe

Meiotic: noun: Biology a type of cell division that results in two daughter cells each with half the chromosome number of the parent cell, as in the production of gametes

Flotilla: noun: a fleet of ships or boats

Point mutation: noun: a mutation affecting only one or very few nucleotides in a gene sequence.

Phenomenon: noun: a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, esp. one whose cause or explanation is in question

Mimicry: noun: action or art of imitating someone or something, typically in order to entertain or ridicule

Various Theories

              In chapter two of The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins introduces his audience with his belief about evolution. He presents his theory by highlighting that evolution is neither a good nor bad thing for humanity. However, he does focus on the fact that evolution is a mistake. It is the outcome of a series of miscopying on behalf of the genes. He expands his theory by comparing it to the ancient coping of the Gospel. By explaining how there was an original copy, and how as it’s being copied scribes are bound to make mistakes. Nevertheless, what is destined to happen when copies are made from other copies is a series of accumulative mistakes. Evolution therefore, is the outcome of these mistakes.

            One the other hand, Jean Baptiste Lamarck a very recognized scientist, is known to have a different understanding towards why evolutions happens.  He describes his theory by explaining that evolution happens due to the same organisms trying to adapt themselves to their environment and its alternations.  These changes in the organisms are passed to the next generation allowing it to have a higher probability of survival. These two ideas can be very contradictory however, they both arrive to the same point, evolution. The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.