Hosts

The Host by Stephenie Meyer creates a society in which aliens in the shape of small, shining, gel-like creatures are taking over the world. These aliens can live for millions of years, as long as they have bodies to carry them around. See, the aliens by themselves are incredibly weak creatures, brilliantly smart, but physically weak. In order to survive, they are inserted into a human’s body through a small cut in the back of the neck. Once inside the body, they take control of the brain and ultimately live as themselves with a puppet that helps them survive. In the book humans are survival machines for the aliens, much like we are in real life for the genes.

“When we have served our purpose we are cast aside.” (pg. 35) This belief is depressing on many levels. Firstly it takes out all meaning in our silly lives, which aren’t really that grand to start with. In just one phrase Dawkins manages to turn a human being into an object, which can be easily cast off at the first sign of trouble. Secondly, it steals all hope for a better existence, seeing as our purpose is nothing more than full housing service for millions of genes. Thirdly: if this is true of our lives, if it really is as Shakespeare put it “a tale told by an idiot…signifying nothing,” (Macbeth, Act V, scene v), then why is it that we consider ourselves so important?

That is the main weakness of humanity: we like to fool ourselves into believing we are more important than we actually are.  We love to think that the world will change, that something will be altered when we die. The truth is we aren’t that special. In our lives, we may be capable of making a few people smile, hopefully we will have the chance to help some people or to leave a mark on them, but in the end we all walk towards the same door. “In a few generations the most you can hope for is a large number of descendants, each of whom bares only a tiny portion of you- a few genes- even if a few do bear your surname as well.” (pg. 35)

This idea brings me back to The Host, mainly because the meaning of life is also questioned in the book. The way the humans in the book see it, there’s no reason to live if you aren’t controlling yourself, if you mean nothing. The rebellious humans that still remain hidden on earth have various strategies to kill themselves before becoming a host, or as Dawkins would put it: a survival machine.

If we really are merely survival machines for our genes, what do we mean? Do we mean anything at all? Should we still have hope for a better society if The Selfish Gene is managing us? What if we are no more than hosts?

“We should have been wiser; we should have died yesterday” (Stephenie Meyer, The Host) 

The Beauty of Choice

“They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines. ” Pg.20

Philosophers exist on earth to answer two main questions: Why are we living? What is our purpose on earth? Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene manages to answer both those questions in just one chapter. Obviously it must be acknowledged that the answers to these questions may vary depending on the way they are studied. In this book’s particular case, they are examined from a scientific point of view, which is exponentially easier to figure out. According to Dawkins we are here solely because the replicators, commonly known as genes, need survival machines. Our purpose is to carry said genes through our life time and pass them on before dying, in order for them to continue living.

This point of view on the meaning of existence seems unsatisfying, especially when philosophers have tried to find a deeper meaning since ancient Greek times. Many will argue that this cannot be the meaning of life, that humans are not guided only by their genes. I counter those thoughts with the knowledge that everything comes from our genes. Even the feeling many say is achieved through anything but biology: love.

Genes cause the first step towards love, the carnal attraction that comes with the animal inside every human being. Without this burst of attraction, love would be impossible because there would be no need to satisfy. Humans and animals alike thrive on survival. Dawkins explains this through the idea of competition. The earth’s size is finite, and thus every species must fight for their piece of land, this is, after all, what we are designed to do. Genes are meant to survive, that is the reason life has appeared on earth, the genes’ need to maintain itself alive is the drive of every species.  Humans or any animal for that matter, don´t do anything without a need to quench.

Why are humans different to animals then? Simple: we have more needs, and through time we have learned to exploit them. Curiosity is the main need that affects our separation from other animal species.

How does this prove the previous point on love? Genes spur the need humans have for love in the form of physical attraction, having this need is the first step towards a relationship and thus appears love. So it is safe to say that genes actually do create love. They create everything inside us.

The idea of the “Selfish Gene” is interesting and most likely correct, if it wasn’t so the human race would be extinct. The proof of this gene is clearly traced through years of human’s taking over the world without blinking. The only thing that is exempt from our genes in our train of thought, which in turn gives us the single most important ability a man has: the ability to choose.