The Selfish Genius as brilliantly identifying how Dawkins' views sit within the latest theories on evolution. The Selfish Genius The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin's Legacy is a 2009 book by Fern Elsdon-Baker about the history of evolutionary theory, published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". The book provides an overview of the historical and philosophical debates that have continued throughout the history of evolutionary theory, and carry on to this day in debates surrounding the merits of gene-centric selection and group selection models. The book is particularly critical of
Gene-centered view of evolution to independent segregation. And the high prevalence of horizontal gene transfer in bacteria and archaea means that genomic combinations of these asexually reproducing groups are also transient in evolutionary time: "The traditional view, that prokaryotic evolution can be understood primarily in terms of clonal divergence and periodic selection, must be augmented to embrace gene exchange as a creative force." The gene as an informational entity persists for an evolutionarily significant span of time through a lineage of many physical copies. In his book "River out of Eden", Dawkins coins the phrase "God's utility function" to explain his view on genes