Are We Ready?

In the fourth chapter of The Selfish Gene, Dawkins talks about something that has haunted me all my life. I have forever been scared of death and its mystery. We will never know in what conditions we are going to die so we will never be ready for it. Dawkins uses the analogy of a computer chess game as the "Gene Machine." The programmer installs the game and gives the computer bascic information but not the best move to any situation because there are infinite combinations of moves and it is impossible to have the best solution for each."the number of possible solutions in chess is so great that the world would come to an end before the list had been completed." (52) In this analogy Dawkins explains how the genes of survival machines have basic information that will make them prepare for any problem but they will not be 100% ready because there are so many different variables it is impossible to be ready for all. Again I came up to the conclusion that we will never be ready for our death and it is impossible to prevent death with a 100% confidence. Human life is so fragile and exposed to danger that it is up to us to take the necessary preventions because although our genes may be ready for some problems we are prone to many others.