Five objections to the selfish gene theory

Richard Dawkins (1976) The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene Theory in short:

"Thus Richard Dawkins introduces us to ourselves as we really are - throwaway survival machines for our immortal genes. Man is a gene machine: a robot vehicle, blindly programmed to preserve its selfish genes." (blurb from the publisher).

"The replicators which survived were the ones which built survival machines for themselves to live in." [1-4]

Clearly, this is a gene-centric theory of life and evolution. Bodies are temporary throw-away vehicles to replicate genes. Viewed in this way, there are several problems that are not at all, or not adequately addressed in either the popular press or by Dawkins himself.

I have 5 objections:

1. genes (DNA) cannot build organisms. Genes cannot control the organism. Genes are never active elements in an organism, they cannot do anything. 
2. the history of life on earth shows a remarkable trend from simple to complex organisms, from single cells to increasingly complex multicellular life forms. This makes no sense from the selfish gene perspective.
3. repair-DNA genes and enzymes are altruistic genes, not selfish genes.
4. the selfish gene theory predicts asexual, not sexual reproduction.
5. the selfish gene theory does predict selfish genes, not cooperative genes. 

-1-

The first objection to the selfish gene theory is that genes cannot act without the help of the cell, and in case of multicellular organisms cannot act without the help of the organism. The central dogma of systems biology reads: The cell reads the DNA code. The cell decides when and which genes to read. The organism ('vehicle' in Dawkins terminology) uses the genes in its genetic library to build itself. DNA itself does not contain a program for building an organism. The cell uses the library of genes to look up the exact specification of a protein and synthesizes it. Enzymes transcribe, translate, replicate and repair DNA. The cell has all the resources (building blocks for DNA, machinery, energy) for the transcription, replication, translation and repair of DNA. The cell has the power and ultimate control. DNA 'self-replication' does not exist. The cell replicates DNA. That's not all. An even more shocking fact for the reputation of DNA: the cell manipulates DNA. The cell machinery turns off genes by attaching a methyl group to the DNA base Cytosine (this is called epigenetics). It is clear by now: DNA on its own is totally helpless. DNA cannot 'self-replicate', it needs enzymes to 'self-replicate'. But enzymes are helpless too. Enzymes are unable to replicate themselves, because they need the specific information encoded in genes to get synthesized. So, genes and enzymes are interdependent. Their very existence depends on each other. It makes no sense to single out one component of a system as being 'selfish'. If there are selfish genes, one could as well say, there are selfish enzymes. Those enzymes, for example DNA-replicases, helicases, primases, and ligases want to replicate DNA because their specification is encoded in that DNA. Again: it makes no sense to single out one component of a system as being 'selfish'.

-2-

The second objection starts with an uncontroversial observation: the earth is populated by complex bodies. If selfish genes want to maximize the number of copies in the next generation, and use bodies as temporary vehicles, why do we see highly complex vehicles instead of relatively simple single cells? (bacteria). Single cells leave more descendants in shorter time, so more copies of their genes are produced. A bacterium can multiply in 30 minutes. In contrast, large, complex bodies take longer to grow and leave fewer descendants. What a waste of time! For example, in the human species, the female is only about 20% of the year fertile; it takes 9 months to grow a baby; it takes about ten years for the newborn to reach sexual maturity, and the number of offspring is significantly smaller compared to mice, flies, bacteria. So, the selfish gene theory should predict single cells as the outcome of evolution. 

-3-

The third objection is: the existence of DNA-repair genes refutes the idea that genes are selfish. DNA-repair genes repair DNA replication errors. They repair errors in all genes. They do not do what one would expect of selfish genes: selfishly and selectively repair errors in their own genes. Hence, DNA-repair genes behave altruistically. This is a new and profound objection to the selfish gene theory. 

-4-

The fourth objection: the selfish gene theory predicts asexual reproduction because that is the most efficient method to produce copies of the selfish genes. But that is not what we see. Sexually reproducing species are far more common than asexual species. Sexually reproducing species dilute their selfish genes with foreign genes of an unrelated individual. That means, with sexual reproduction, only half of the alleles of the male and half of the alleles of the female end up in the children. While with asexual reproduction (sort of cloning) 100% of the alleles end up in the offspring.   

-5-

The fifth objection: the selfish gene theory seems to predict selfish genes within genomes, not cooperative genes. It seems to predict a war of genes within a genome, since every gene wants to become the dominant gene. Yet, the 'selfish' genes of an organism are housed together with all other selfish genes in the same body (vehicle). In other words: they are all in the same boat! The problem is that genes housed in bodies can do nothing on their own. A single gene cannot build an organism. Even the most simple single-cell organisms need thousands of cooperating genes to build the 'vehicle'. The totality of all genes is called the genome. Only a complete genome can be the basis for building an organism. If one gene in a genome replicates significantly more than all the other genes in the same genome (a selfish gene), that could result in the death of the organism. Consequently, it would result in the death of that selfish gene and all the other genes. There is only one option for the 'selfish' genes to survive: cooperate! So, a genome necessarily is a community of cooperating genes. Paradoxically, in order to build their vehicle, those 'selfish' genes need to be altruistic towards all the other genes in the same vehicle. Remember this: The best cooperators build the best vehicles! 

 

Conclusion

The Selfish Gene theory is an extreme form of gene-centrism. The book The Selfish Gene became a bestseller because it resonates with our perception of human nature. The book seems to explain the urge to survive, to have sex, and to have children of one's own. The story that genes make survival machines is intuitively easy to comprehend. But it is misleading. It is wrong. It is not what really happens in the cell. The truth is more complicated than that. Genes do not have the power to control anything. From the perspective of the organism, DNA is nothing more than a storage medium and a vehicle of inheritance. Organisms want to make identical or at least very similar copies of themselves. To make that possible they use DNA. It makes no sense to single out one component (DNA) of a system as the most important, as Dawkins did. Maybe, in a sense we are programmed to reproduce, but that cannot be attributed solely to genes. If evolution is all about the replication of genes, then why complex bodies? Why sex? They are unnecessary to get genes copied. Bacteria do that much better and faster without complex bodies and sex.

Notes

1. "We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes." Preface to the first edition. 
2. "The replicators which survived were the ones which built survival machines for themselves to live in. (...) They are in you and me, they created us, body and mind ..." page 21, hardback Oxford University Press 1977.
3. "This DNA can be regarded as a set of instructions for how to make a body." page 23
4. "genes control embryonic development" page 25. (all emphasis is mine) 

Previous blogs

1. A review of 'The Music of Life' by Denis Noble. Noble is not a clown! My blog 15 Jan 2026
2. Gene-centrism is bad biology. Here is why. My blog 17 December 2025
3. What is DNA-centrism? Why is it wrong? My blog 10 November 2025