Battle of the Generations

Chapter 8 has different point of view and different focuses. In the beginning, Dawkins describes mothers as machines which produce a child similar to themselves. like machines, mothers try to duplicate their own genes and pass them onto this new machine being created to live in this world; but unlike machines, they cannot be exactly duplicated or copied. Genes can work in an order and follow instructions like machines, but they do make mistakes more often, and they also have then genes of the father which they have to incorporate into their offspring. Each offspring a couple has is very different. it has many similarities and comes from the same genes and parents; but its effect is entirely unique and can never be duplicated by another sibling from the same makeup. This is a difficult process and Dawkins shows it as simply as the work a machine does when running its regular course.

As said before, brothers and sisters are as closely related as mothers and their children are; therefore, a mother gives the same amount of genes (1/2) to each of her offspring. because of selfish greed which has already developed at the age of birth, each child wants his or her mother to invest more genes into him or her then into the rest of the siblings. The mother will naturally only invest the same amount into each, but the act of selfishness is reinforced at the young age of the child, which will characterize most of its behavior for a good amount of the child's life.

Different species handle this jealousy in different ways. each of these ways are prone to help its particular specie to get ahead in the race of natural selection. Some birds lay their eggs in different species nests because when the egg hatches the normal action the young bird would take would be to kill the other unhatched eggs with its sharp beak and kill the other birds opportunity to be competition for food from the mother. This act is passed on throughout generations and the trait is never lost. when the mother returns with food, the child would be happy and show it in some obvious way for the act he has done and for the ease it will now be to have the food brought home by the mother. This obvious act would please the mother and give her inspiration to go get more food and nurture her child, giving the child the new idea that by doing this it can manipulate and receive whatever it wants.