[falcor84]

I'll use this opportunity to recommend The Selfish Gene, which puts forward a strong argument for how the actual competitive battlefield on Earth is between genes, while us humans and everything else we call "life" are their "survival machines" (read: technology that they use).

[ShinyLeftPad]

I recommend to also read criticism of why selfish gene needs to be taken with a suitable grain of salt.

Also the author currently believes Claude is conscious, apparently because LLM output contained enough flattery.

[ceejayoz]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease strikes again.

[hackable_sand]

Why would you recommend that?

[rbanffy]

Genes have had their time.

[hackboyfly]

Last chapter talks about the concept of ideas or “memes” taking its place.

Ideas that are beneficial for the human may be passed forward and survive. It got me thinking about religion, hell yeah I would tell me children about god if I believed it would save them from eternal suffering.

[rbanffy]

Humans also had a good run, but maybe it’s time for something different. The same way genes ceded the stage to memes, maybe organic brains and human minds are not the best possible way for memes to propagate.

[andyjohnson0]

Genes are now merely the "survival machine" for something else?

[TeMPOraL]

No. Genes are static fixtures. Furniture. Slow life. Memes took the stage now, they propagate faster.

[rbanffy]

And guess what? They won’t really need humans to propagate for much longer. Humans are too slow to propagate them anyway.