Title: River out of Eden
Author: Dawkins, Richard
Published by: Phoenix
Year: 1996
First published: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995
Date reviewed: 03.98
ISBN: 1-85799-405-1

I am not sure why Dawkins has written this book. As always, he writes with clarity and enthusiasm but there is little new material here to add to his growing literature on modern Darwinism. I am grateful for his explanation of the headline-grabbing “discovery” of “African” or “Mitochondrial Eve”, the individual from whom every living human is descended through an unbroken female line, which he explains does not mean she was our sole ancestor. But apart from a resounding demolition in Chapter 3 of the “it’s so perfect it couldn’t have evolved gradually” creationist argument, I have a sneaking impression that the book was written because Dawkins had thought of a good metaphor for the title.

In the final chapter he toys with the idea that life, rather than being Stephen Hawking’s “chemical scum”, may ultimately have an impact far beyond the confines of the planet. He does not develop this idea beyond the detection of our radio signals or other artifacts by other intelligences, and David Deutsch’s book is much more challenging. Deutsch also refers to Frank Tipler’s book “The Physics of Immortality” in which he (Deutsch) finds a “valuable core” buried inside “exaggerated claims” for Tipler’s omega-point theory.

However, the book is quick and easy to read and Dawkins’ fans will enjoy another fix of their favourite geneticist.