DAWKINS´ PROTAGONIST: THE GENE

“A gene is defined as any portion of chromosomal material that potentially lasts for enough generation to serve as a unit of natural selection”(P.28).

Finally we get to the point where Dawkins is starting to explain his book’s protagonist; the gene. What we have understood about a gene, from Dawkins point of view, is that it is a unique genetic unit which has the enough capacities to last for a lot of generations, “distributing” itself in various copies. Natural selection has been Dawkins important issue to explain gene’s importance; “Natural selection in its most general form means the differential survival of entities”. Each specie or individual has a time limit, where it has to deal with stability and survival. The point is, a gene also has to be aware of stability, but not about short life time, since it just “leaps from body to body down to generations, manipulating body after body in its own way...”(P.34) You see! A gene lasts forever! A very important gene idiosyncrasy! Humans, animals, or “survival machines” are mortals, while genes are the immortals, because “ genes in the world have an expectation of life that must be measured in millions years!”(P.37) In this vast period of time, genes are the only ones who really pertain about natural selection, since “ it is defined as a piece of chromosome which is sufficient short for it to last, potential, for long enough for it to function as a significant unit of natural selection” (P.36)
I will see if a gene, living within other genes or environments, will still be sufficiently potential to survive and achieve stability! Once I find these answers I will then be able to comprehend why the gene is the basic unit of selfishness.