Week I · 13 plates
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Genes Own and Survive Us

Ownership as a biological instruction

The big idea

Every life form protects and defends property: the gene is wrapped in DNA, DNA is walled in a nucleus, the cell is skinned by a membrane, and the family is housed. Ownership is not an invention of law; it is an instruction written into living matter.

By the end of this week you can
  • Describe the nested boundaries that protect a replicator.
  • Explain why the gene, not the organism, is the unit that persists.
  • Show that cells cooperate — and that cooperation needs a boundary first.
Lecture hall · Week I

Genes Own and Survive Us

Plate 01 · leading message · use ← → keys

Plate 01
1976

The gene is the thing that survives us.

Bodies are temporary. The replicator inside them is what carries forward, and everything a body does to protect it is, functionally, an act of ownership.

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Slides
Reading notes · Week I

What you took from the pages

Write your own notes once you have finished The Selfish Gene, then revisit them before class. Notes are private to your account and never seen by anyone else.