In Chapter 2, Dawkins expands Darwin’s theory to explain the beginning of time. He argues that when the world as we know it was beginning to form, the unstable molecules broke apart and the stable ones survived. This was the very first form of natural selection. As this process went on, one of these molecules developed the ability to make copies of itself, earning the title of “the replicator” and what Dawkins considers the “founding father” of DNA. By the time multiple replicators existed, natural selection took over again and the best replicators survived. At some point a mutation or misreplication lead to one of the replicators developing a protein wall around itself, thereby becoming the first cell. Dawkins claims that one replicator then developed the ability to break down these protein walls and absorb components of the primeval soup and this selection pressure then caused another replicator to arm itself with a thicker and stronger protein wall. Dawkins calls these protein walls “survival shells” because they protect the replicators to allow them to survive. As time went on, survival machines became more and more complex until we get to full multicellular organism, which is just a fancy shell for replicators. That’s what humans are, very fancy survival shells for our replicators. We are “lumbering robots” at the will of our selfish genes.