A Favor To Gain One

Sometimes we do something good, a favor to others, and it seems we are doing it just for good but there really is a reason behind it. I happen to do this at times, like when I need money I do some random favors to my mom and dad, and when the time is right I ask for the money and because of the chores I did I get it.

The same is happening in The Selfish Gene where animals live in packs or herds so they have greater chance of surviving. The book says “A fish who swims obliquely behind another fish may gain a hydrodynamic advantage from the turbulence created from the fish in front. This could be partly why fish school”. (pg 167) So here we see that fish are selfish because they actually swim in schools to gain hydrodynamic advantages over the predators. We see the same desire of survival from all animals. That’s why when the book mentions “You scratch my back, Ill scratch yours” I realized why that saying is one that show selfishness. “You scratch my back” as in do me a favor, and I will also give you a favor.

Nature Balances Things Out

Natural Selection

In Chapter 5 of this scientific book, The Selfish Gene, I found a very interesting explanation of natural selection. The book says “In the population sitting at the other stable state, ´resident wins, intruder retreats´, natural selection would favour individuals who strove to be residents.”(Pg 79) Here the author refers to “resident” as the organism who is living in a certain terrain, and the “intruder” is the organism trying to find territory. He also explains to us that if the organisms didn’t respect this rule, then their survival chances would be less. He says that the rule lets them be unharmed because there are no fights over territory, the intruder runs away. But this intruder will never become a resident, because all the territory will have a resident of its own. This is when natural selection acts, giving the resident the advantage. This means the worst for the invader, it will perish for the simple reason that it will never have its own territory. He will always run away and never win, he will eventually die.

A Plan To Follow

Planning ahead is something I usually do, specially when I am trying to plan a party or a nice thing to do with my friends. When I plan things I think about all the different alternatives I have and the ways the outcome can be different. As the book The Selfish Gene says “You set up a model in your head, not of everything in the world, but of the restricted set of entities which you think may be relevant”. (Pg 59) This is exactly what happens when I think ahead, I plan.

When you are planning something and see everything that can go wrong, you try to change it. In your mind you may be able to change it but when its time to actually act, it may no go as you thought it would. The text says something very closely related to this “In either case it is unlikely that somewhere laid out in your brain is an actual spatial model of the events you are imagining”. (Pg 59) Its as if you try to influence the outcome but its impossible to influence it the way you really wanted to. This happens sometimes when you want something to be perfect and you cant achieve it; your brain planning wasn’t good enough because it is “unlikely that somewhere laid out in your brain is an actual spatial model of the events you are imagining”. It is still a normal thing to plan ahead, I do it all the time, and it never goes the way I thought it would.

Evolution

A couple of weeks ago in science class our teacher began to talk about evolution and mutation. She said that when organisms changed to fit inside their environment or to gain an advantage over other species, that was evolution. She also said that those species who were able to evolve into superior beings than the others would undergo natural selection. This is the process by which the strongest and most capable species survives.

In the book The Selfish Gene we see how the author states “Evolution is the process by which some genes become more numerous and others less numerous in the gene pool”. (Pg 45) Here I realized that the definition given here was a lot more professional that the one our science teacher told us about. I still know that the explanation she gave was easier to understand, but this one is more complete. I read this quote again and saw that it said “genes become more numerous and others less numerous” meaning some of them, the stronger ones are selected to continue thanks to Natural Selection. Here I saw how it was all related.

A New Point Of View

Candide and Cacambo have arrived to a strange place. They are in a place where “The roads are crowded, or rather adorned, with carriages, magnificent in appearance and material, drawn by huge red sheep…” (Pg 74). They have arrived to a great place where children are wearing and playing with gold.

They assume the children playing with gold are from the royal family. This is a great example of stereotype, just because the children have gold nuggets they are from the royal family. OK, if I were with them I would assume the same they have. We then see Candide, with a tone of being completely astonished, say “The children of the Kings of this country must be well brought up, if they are taught to despise gold and precious stones.” (Pg 75) We now see how Candide, representing our modern society (in that time European society), cant believe a thing like gold is being thrown away. He is in disbelief with what he is seeing. They are use too believing that gold is precious wile the people they are seeing might see gold in a different perspective. Candide is just surprised to see that some people don’t think the same he does.

American Long Names

As I kept reading Candide I began to look for a part in which they made fun of something. I chapter 13 I found a clear example of this. It said “upon the governor, Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza, a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names”. (Pg 58) Here we can see how Voltaire is making fun of the important people in America who had extraordinary long names like Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte Blanco better known as Simon Bolivar or in this case “Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza”. If we look back at the quotation we may see that it also states “a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names”. It tells us that all the names he has show the importance he has; even better, it tells us that the pride he has of himself is showed by the many names he has. We can see why Voltaire would make fun of those arrogant American governors.

Lucky People

After reading chapter 6 of Candide I encountered a character, a sailor who had very good luck for a while. He was a villain, by first hitting the Anabaptist, but being helped by luck “The force of his blow upset the sailors balance, and fell head first overboard; but, in falling, he was caught on a piece of the broken mast, and hung dangling over the ships side.”(Candide pg 32) This is his first event of many that show the good luck he has.

Later there is an earthquake in Lisbon which killed many people, giving the sailor a chance to get new things. “The sailor straight into the midst of the debris and risked his life searching for money. Having found some, he ran off with it to get drunk;” (Candide pg 33) He first was saved by a broken mast, and right after that an earthquake uncovered riches, from the people who died, and he got them.

In the other hand, the Anabaptist who saved the sailor and then died was a good person and anyways died. That’s why we say “Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people.” This is the exact opposite of what should happen. This is irony, a perfect example of it.