[hn_throwaway_99]

Haven't read The Selfish Gene, but reading the summary it looks like it touches on some very similar themes as Stephen Pinker's How The Mind Works, which I thought was also a great book. Gave me a good intuitive understanding of how the human neural system evolved, and I found so much of the book to be prescient and timely in our current "AI era".

[loveparade]

What people forget to mention is when they have read a book. I read the Selfish Gene when I was a teen and it left a lasting impression. It was published in 1989. How the Mind works was published in 2011.

Reading the Selfish Gene today as an adult, when you've probably read a dozen similar books already, is not going to have the same effect. It's going to be pretty boring. That's why asking for book recommendations is flawed to begin with.

[llamaimperative]

What similar books are there to The Selfish Gene? I read it not too long ago and found it astonishing.

People are generally enthralled by Sapiens which is just a very mediocre extension + shallow interpretation of Dawkins’ thesis.

[etiam]

Probably too similar, but do follow up with "The Extended Phenotype" if you haven't already.

[mikhailfranco]

Dawkins is not an original researcher. He is wonderful at synthesizing research and writing eloquent popular books.

The importance of The Selfish Gene is to write a correct summary of the neo-Darwinian project. In the future (perhaps even now), it will be more famous for the coining of meme (in an appendix IIRC).

However, The Extended Phenotype is a remarkably original exposition of important (then) contemporary frontiers of Darwinism. It is a powerful idea, powerfully described.

It is certainly his most important original contribution to the literature. And a beautiful book. True and convincing. It will change your view of the world. There is no higher praise.

[llamaimperative]

I have been meaning to come back to this since reading Selfish Gene, but haven't gotten to it! I suppose I should :)

[NortySpock]

"The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture" by Darrel Ray follows in the footsteps of The Selfish Gene to certain logical conclusions about clusters of related memes/concepts (specifically: how religion(s) formed and evolved as clusters of overlapping concepts)

[layer8]

How the Mind works was published in 1997, and The Selfish Gene in 1976.

[canadianfella]

The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, not 1989. I read it as a teen in the 90s and it is probably my favourite book of all time.

Also,

Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything”.

Brian Greene’s “The Fabric of the Cosmos” (and all of his other books)

Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” and “The Blind Watchmaker” are also amazing.

Fiction:

Adrian Czajkowski‘s “Children of Time” and Orson Scott Card‘s “Ender’s Game” are both anong my favourites.