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John Maynard Smith - The probability of creating life in a laboratory (101/102)

1,068 views · Published 23 January 2017 · 1:30 · Indexed 14 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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The late British biologist John Maynard Smith (1920-2004) is famous for applying game theory to the study of natural selection. In 1973 Maynard Smith formalised a central concept in game theory called the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). His ideas, presented in books such as 'Evolution and the Theory of Games', were enormously influential and led to a more rigorous scientific analysis and understanding of interactions between living things. [Listener: Richard Dawkins; date recorded: 1997]

TRANSCRIPT: [RD] Is it possible that life is such a rare phenomenon in the universe as a whole that the kind of chemical event we're looking for is too improbable that we should ever expect to see it duplicated in the laboratory?

If I can quote somebody I quoted earlier: 'It is logically possible, but it would be very inelegant.' I mean, I would hate to think that some wildly unlikely event had to come across. At the moment, I see no reason. Things don't seem to be going that way. I mean, things are going very nicely, thank you, I think, in the origin of life problem, I mean, we're getting closer and closer. We don't seem to be up against an impasse that we can make no progress with. Maybe we'll hit one, but at the moment, I should say, things are looking relatively...

[RD] 'But if it's that easy, where are they?' to quote Fermi.

You mean, up there somewhere, but why haven't they come?

[RD] Why haven't they come?

Well, there's a rather sick reason, that life is fine until you get the evolution of an intelligent, tool-making organism, and then it blows itself up. And they're not here because, although they evolved, they destroyed themselves as soon as they reached our stage. I'd prefer not to believe that either, I think. It is a little puzzling that we haven't picked up information, even if we have, you know, one might expect in the... all this radiation that's surrounding us, be able to pick up a message of some kind. Disappointing.

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