The Rudimentary Gene

In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins begs the question, “How did everything come to be?” At the very beginning of time atoms were mixed together in a loose sort of soup. These atoms eventually began to link up to form molecules. Then, these molecules developed the ability to replicate themselves. This was important because they could now increase their number in the general population.

Similar to Darwin’s idea of “survival of the fittest”(p.12), these early molecules were exposed to a process Dawkins deems “survival of the stable”(p.12). The gist of this process is that each of the molecules was up against the others in a type of competition. The failure or success of each depended on several characteristics. “[Certain] types would become relatively numerous in the soup, not only as a direct logical consequence of their ‘longevity’, but also because they would have a long time available for making copies of themselves.”(p.17) “Another property of a replicator variety that must have had even more importance in spreading it through the population was speed of replication or ‘fecundity’.”(p.17) The faster each molecule could replicate itself, the more identical replicas it would contribute to the soup. “A third characteristic of replicator molecules which would have been positively selected is accuracy of replication.”(p.17) If a molecule makes frequent mistakes then the copies it makes won’t be identical, therefore lessening its numbers, making it scarcer, and possibly leading to its extinction. 

However, for a molecule to be truly successful it had to have all three characteristics. Those that did, survived and began to build “survival machines for themselves to live in.”(p.19) At first these were rudimentary coatings at best, yet steadily they became stronger and more complex. “Now they [the replicators] go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.”(p.20) Clearly, it was a competitive, difficult process, but essential nonetheless. So essential in fact, that these early replicators have evolved into the basis for all life on earth.