Cheetah genes cooperate with cheetah genes but not with camel genes, and vice versa. This is not because cheetah genes, even in the most poetic sense, see any virtue in the preservation of the cheetah species. They are not working to save the cheetah from extinction like some molecular World Wildlife Fund.

Our brains have evolved to help us survive within the orders of magnitude of size and speed which our bodies operate at. We never evolved to navigate in the world of atoms.

The river of my title is a river of DNA, a river of information, not a river of bones and tissues

When I sign books, I get lines of people and what they usually say is: "Thank you. You have changed my life." I am really moved by that.

There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out.

The whole of technology depends on a scientific background, and of course technology can be used for evil purposes. You can't blame science for that.

Most people understand that sexual lust has to do with propagating genes. Copulation in nature tends to lead to reproduction and so to more genetic copies. But in modern society, most copulations involve contraception, designed precisely to avoid reproduction. Altruism probably has origins like those of lust.