Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author. He is a professorial fellow of New College, Oxford.
Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. In 1982, he made a widely cited contribution to evolutionary biology with the theory, presented in his book The Extended Phenotype, that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms.
Dawkins is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the observed complexity of living organisms, and instead described evolutionary processes as being analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and has made regular appearances on television and radio programmes, predominantly discussing the aforementioned topics.
Dawkins is an atheist, secular humanist, sceptic, scientific rationalist, and supporter of the Brights movement. He has widely been referred to in the media as "Darwin's Rottweiler", by analogy with English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of natural selection. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that faith qualifies as a delusion − as a fixed false belief. As of November 2007, the English language version had sold more than 1.5 million copies and had been translated into 31 other languages, making it his most popular book to date.
I guess you have to be interested in Science, evolution, quantum mechanics and an atheist...I guess I am all of the above, so yea I find his stuff spot on.
And most of his vids are out there .
Last edited by CaptainCox on Mon, 12th Jan 2009 20:28; edited 1 time in total
Anyways, I prefer the works of Stephen Hawking. Currently going through "GOD created the Integers". Good stuff, that guy But yeah, both of em are good for a late night brainfuck.
Read Hawkings Brief history of time, The theory of everything and Universe in a nutshell. He is a difficult read even for someone who's into physics. I'm currently reading The road to reality by Roger Penrose. Btw dl Dawkins collection:). Will definitely give it a read (especially the god illusion )
"Quantum mechanics is actually, contrary to it's reputation, unbeliveably simple, once you take the physics out."
Scott Aaronson
chiv wrote:
thats true you know. newton didnt discover gravity. the apple told him about it, and then he killed it. the core was never found.
The theory of everything and Universe in a nutshell.
I thought douglas adams figured that one out in his books?
Spoiler:
42
that's nothing more than just an answer to life, the universe and everything it's nowhere near a theory
Exactly, it an answer, but the only thing that matters is the question that matches the answer!
Spoiler:
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
There is a third theory which suggests that both of the first two theories were concocted by a wily editor of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in order to increase the universal level of uncertainty and paranoia and so boost the sales of the Guide. This last theory is of course the most convincing as The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the only book in the whole of the known universe to have the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on the cover.
Last edited by tikkietegek on Mon, 12th Jan 2009 20:11; edited 1 time in total
Dawkins has been around for years Cox. He has a ton of books and been on every news program or talk show you can imagine
Wow, I can see that now. I guess I don't watch a lot of telly .
I listen a lot to "In our time" BBC Radio4, one of the best science/history/philosophical/religion shows there is. And I noticed this guy called Richard Dawkins was participating in a program about the "Origin of life". I really liked his reasoning and general attitude, so I started to search for him on the net and voila! .
"In our time" is almost as good as the TTC lectures in my "ears" .
It took me good couple of minutes to find and there was some old woman sorting books, she went somewhere and i found the book..she comes with some book about evolution and shows it to me so i responded..I found what I was looking for...and then insert 5 minute rant how this book is not good at all..how he preaches atheists..and what not....
my instinct was to walk away...and I did with saying suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure
I just find it really cool that a guy of that caliber basically have exactly the same world view that I have . I did not know of him before I listened to that "In our Time" episode.
Read Hawkings Brief history of time, The theory of everything and Universe in a nutshell. He is a difficult read even for someone who's into physics. I'm currently reading The road to reality by Roger Penrose. Btw dl Dawkins collection:). Will definitely give it a read (especially the god illusion )
When you get to the point where you find stuff like A Brief History of Time too simplistic you should get Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos, it goes a lot deeper into the interesting bits of physics.
Read Hawkings Brief history of time, The theory of everything and Universe in a nutshell. He is a difficult read even for someone who's into physics. I'm currently reading The road to reality by Roger Penrose. Btw dl Dawkins collection:). Will definitely give it a read (especially the god illusion )
When you get to the point where you find stuff like A Brief History of Time too simplistic you should get Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos, it goes a lot deeper into the interesting bits of physics.
Will definitely write it down for later read. Thnx!
"Quantum mechanics is actually, contrary to it's reputation, unbeliveably simple, once you take the physics out."
Scott Aaronson
chiv wrote:
thats true you know. newton didnt discover gravity. the apple told him about it, and then he killed it. the core was never found.
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.
I will have to check some of his books...
But yeah, both of em are good for a late night brainfuck.
it's nowhere near a theory 
.
