The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science) — Preface To First Edition

1. 1. We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
2. 2. Dawkins wrote the book to appeal to the imagination, like science fiction, but it is science.
3. 3. The book avoids technical jargon and uses non-mathematical language to popularize subtle and complicated ideas without oversimplifying.
4. 4. Dawkins hopes the expert reader will find new ways of looking at familiar ideas, or even stimulation of new ideas.
5. 5. The student reader is encouraged to consider zoology because animals are the most complicated and perfectly-designed pieces of machinery in the known universe.
6. 6. The book is largely based on new ideas from G. C. Williams, J. Maynard Smith, W. D. Hamilton, and R. L. Trivers.