Climbing Mount Improbable

298 Pages·1997·6.13 MB·English

by  Richard Dawkins

CLIMBING MOUNT IMPROBABLE
By the Same Author
THE SELFISH GENE
THE EXTENDED PHENOTYPE
THE BLIND WATCHMAKER
RIVER OUT OF EDEN
Original drawings by Lalla Ward
CLIMBING MOUNT IMPROBABLE
Richard Dawkins
W. W. Norton & Company New York London
Copyright © 1996 by Richard Dawkins
Original drawings copyright © 1996 by Lalla Ward
All rights reserved First published as a Norton 1997
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dawkins, Richard, 1941—
Climbing mount improbable / Richard Dawkins; original drawings by Lalla
Ward.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-39331682-7
1. Natural selection. 2. Evolutionary genetics. 3. Morphogenesis. I. Title.
QH375.D376 1996
575.01’62—dc20
96—19138
CIP
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London WIT 3QT
For Robert Winston,
a good doctor and a good man
Contents
Acknowledgements
Picture Acknowledgements
1 Facing Mount Rushmore
2 Silken Fetters
3 The Message from the Mountain
4 Getting off the Ground
5 The Forty-fold Path to Enlightenment
6 The Museum of All Shells
7 Kaleidoscopic Embryos
8 Pollen Grains and Magic Bullets
9 The Robot Repeater
10 ‘A Garden Inclosed’
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
THIS BOOK GREW OUT OF MY ROYAL INSTITUTION Christmas
Lectures, televised by the BBC under the general title Growing Up in the
Universe. I have had to abandon that title because at least three other books have
since appeared with almost identical names. Moreover, my book itself has grown
up and changed, so it is no longer fair to call it the book of the Christmas
Lectures. Nevertheless I should like to thank the Director of the Royal Institution
for honouring me with the invitation to join the historic lineage of Christmas
Lecturers going all the way back to Michael Faraday. Bryson Gore of the Royal
Institution, together with William Woollard and Richard Melman of Inca
Television, influenced the lectures greatly, and traces of their influence will still
be found in this greatly transformed and enlarged book.
Michael Rodgers read and constructively criticized early drafts of more
chapters than are here printed, and advised decisively on the reconstruction of
the whole book. Fritz Vollrath and Peter Fuchs gave expert readings of Chapter
2, while Michael Land and Dan Nilsson did the same for Chapter 5. All four of
these experts gave generously of their knowledge when I tapped it. Mark Ridley,
Matt Ridley, Charles Simonyi and Lalla Ward Dawkins read the whole book in a
late draft and provided helpful criticism and reassuring encouragement in
needful proportions. Mary Cunnane of W. W. Norton and Ravi Mirchandani of
Viking Penguin showed generous tolerance and big-hearted judgement as the
book grew, took on a life of its own and finally shrank again to more manageable
scope. John Brockman lurked encouragingly in the background, never
interfering but always ready with support. Computer experts are heroes, too
often unsung. In this book I have used the programs of Peter Fuchs, Thiemo
Krink and Sam Zschokke. Ted Kaehler collaborated with me in conceiving and
writing the difficult Arthromorphs program. In my own suite of ‘watchmaker’
programs I have frequently benefited from the advice and help of Alan Grafen
and Alun ap Rhisiart. The staff of the Zoological and Entomological Collections
of the University Museum at Oxford lent specimens and expert advice. Josine
Meijer was a willing and resourceful picture researcher. My wife, Lalla Ward
Dawkins, did the drawings (though not the layouts) and her love of Darwinian
Creation shines through every one of them.
I should like to thank Charles Simonyi, not only for his immense generosity
in endowing the post in Public Understanding of Science which I now hold at
Oxford, but also for articulating his vision—which coincides with mine—of the
craft of explaining science to a large audience. Do not talk down. Try to inspire
everybody with the poetry of science and make your explanations as easy as
honesty allows, but at the same time do not neglect the difficult. Put extra effort
into explaining to those readers prepared to put matching effort into
understanding.
Picture Acknowledgements
Drawings by Lalla Ward: 1.7, 1.9, 1.10, 1.13, 1.14, 2.9, 3.1, 3.3, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4,
4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.1, 5.15, 6.3, 6.4, 6.10, 6.13, 6.15, 7.3, 7.8, 7.15a, 7.16, 8.2, 8.3,
8.6; 1.2 (after Hölldobler and Wilson); 1.3 (after Wilson); 1.11 (after Eberhard);
2.6 (after Bristowe); 5.30 (after M. F. Land); 7.10 (after Brusca and Brusca);
7.11 (after Collins Guide to Insects); 7.17 (after Brusca and Brusca); 10.6 (after
Heijn from Ulenberg).
Computer-generated images by the author: 1.14, 1.15, 1.16, 5.3*, 5.5*, 5.6*,
5.7*, 5.9*, 5.10*, 5.11*, 5.12, 5.20*, 5.28, 6.2*, 6.3*, 6.5, 6.6, 6.8, 6.11, 6.12,
6.14, 7.1, 7.9, 7.12, 7.13, 7.14 (images marked with an asterisk redrawn by Nigel
Andrews); by Jeremy Hopes 5.13.
Heather Angel: 1.5, 1.11b, 5.21, 8.1. Ardea: 1.8 (Hans D. Dossenbach), 1.11a
(Tony Beamish), 6.7 (P. Morris), 9.3e (Bob Gibbons). Euan N. K. Clarkson:
5.28. Bruce Coleman: 10.3a (Gerald Cubitt). W. D. Hamilton: 10.1, 10.2, 10.4,
10.5, 10.7. Ole Munk: 5.31. NHPA: 6.1 (James Carmichael Jr). Chris O’Toole:
1.6a and b. Oxford Scientific Films: 1.4 (Rudie Kuiter), 2.1 (Densey Clyne),
5.19 (Michael Leach), 5.19b (J. A. L. Cooke), 10.2b (K. Jell), 10.3b (David
Cayless). Portech Mobile Robotics Laboratory, Portsmouth: 9.2. Prema Photos:
8.5 (K. G. PrestonMafham). David M. Raup: 6.9. Science Photo Library: 9.3a
(A. B. Dowsett), 9.3b (John Bavosi), 9.3c (Manfred Kage), 9.3d (David
Patterson), 9.6 (J. C. Revy). Dr Fritz Vollrath: 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12,
2.13. Zefa: 9.1.
1.1 from Michell, J. (1978) Simulacra. London: Thames and Hudson.
2.5 from Hansell (1984).
2.7 and 2.8 from Robinson (1991).