In Chapter 4, Dawkins focuses on the survival machines, commenting on the function of their brains if they are just vessels for genes. He argues that at some point a replicator arose with the power to build neurons and created brains. The brain was able to coordinate the survival machine well by making it react faster and store movements, abilities, and past experiences. The brain is the very first hard drive. This makes it sound like humans are effectively puppets for genes, but we feel like we have some agency over ourselves and our actions, don’t we? Well, we are only autonomous in a way. Dawkins explains this using yet another metaphor. He says that the genes are the code that enables a computer to run, but a programmer doesn’t tell the computer what to do at every step. A programmer writes the code, and the computer runs based on the instruction manual. You see, the genes couldn’t control every action of the survival shells themselves due to “time lag” problems. The genes would take too long to tell the machinery what do and this would make the shell unfit, hence the brain and the instruction manual. Genes ultimately control the body by running protein synthesis, but let us feel a little in control by allowing us to make short term decisions that they would not be able to react to fast enough.
Now, if we were just gene puppets, why would we need consciousness? Why do we need to where we are, what we are, and why? This goes back to how genes cannot control every action due to time lags. It is more favorable to the survival shell if the organism can learn from its environment: hence, consciousness. We need to dream, think and analyze in order to run survival situations in our head and better survive.
Communication between survival shells allows us to better survive as well. Dawkins uses the example of baby birds chirping when they get lost so their mother will find them, increasing their chance of surviving. Taking it a hop, skip and jump further, Dawkins argues that communication like lying also helps organisms survive because it helps the survival machine and therefore the genes. In fact, Dawkins claims that deceit evolves next to communication because it helps the survival of the organism.