Live To Die Another Day

Dawkins explains that genes: the creators of the survival machine, the organism. Is the utter most essential piece of life. Genes determine who war are, what we do, and why. Everything. But Dawkins makes it clear that genes don't take their positions for granted.

Thinking of survival machines, I can't stop thinking of a varsity soccer team. The survival machine is the team, the players are the genes, and the school is the gene pool. Unfortunately not every one can play with the big boys, meaning only the best of the best are chosen to represent. But one must start form the beginning of the building process of an elite team: try-outs. Try-outs is where the players show their talent, for this process an "I" is inserted in the word "team." Every player must prove themselves to the coach (the environment: "...I preferred to think of th gene as the fundamental unit of natural selection, therefore the fundamental unit of self-interest."(33) In other words: Dawkins makes it clear that personal gain is the only thing on the players' minds. As the hours go by, the fitness of the players starts to be noted. It becomes a matter of who can still give the most to the cause, no matter the time passed. Survival of the fittest kicks in: who can best adapt to the style of play, and produce the most? Once this process of handpicking the player is executed. The second step commences. 

"Each entity must exist in the forms of lots of copies and at least some of the entities must be potentially capable of surviving, in the forms of copies, for a significant period of evolutionary time."(33) Each player must now prove that besides beginning the best at what he does, he must be able to play the tournament (evolution) with his ten other peers. Because it makes no sense to have the best players but not being able to use them efficiently because no teamwork is accomplished. And like the tournament is so long, the team will eliminated quickly if teamwork isn't present. Every team wants to win, because winning brings reproduction. A chance that maybe the team will be able to win more tournaments throughout their time as a whole. To leave a foundation for the future players to come. 

At the end of the day, the ultimate goal is survival. Evolution only plays with the best, nd the best are the ones who adapt the quickest, and reproduce efficiently. If not the system goes down the drain, and that only leaves three words to describe the consequences: YOU ARE SCREWED!