Blackmore, Susan J.; Richard Dawkins (intro);
The Meme Machine
Oxford University Press, 2000, 288 pages
ISBN 019286212X, 9780192862129
topics: | evolution | sociology | language | algorithm
Memes are units of cultural information or info-genes like "tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches" [Dawkins]. Any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation is a meme: stories, fashions, inventions, recipes, songs, ways of plowing a field or throwing a baseball or making a sculpture. The book deals with questions such as how to spot a meme, the meme as an universal replicator (of which the gene is but an example) - universal replicators must have three attributes: high fidelity replication, high fecundity (lots of copies) and longevity. Today, genes may be more effective on these aspects, but memes are in their infancy yet. [A well-known trick meme: a couple of colluders stand in the street pointing at some area of interest and gesticulating, soon attracting a crowd around them. One person's looking behaviour triggers another's.] - AM
The human language faculty primarily provided a selective advantage to memes, not genes. The memes then changed the environment in which the genes were selected, and so forced them to build better and better meme-spreading apparatus. In other words, the function of language is to spread memes. (p. 99). Just as the design of our bodies can be understood only in terms of natural selection, so the design of our minds can be understood only in terms of memetic selection. - p.171 Contents: * Foreword by Richard Dawkins * Preface * Strange creatures * Universal Darwinism * The evolution of culture * Taking the meme's eye view * Three problems with memes * The big brain * The origins of language * Meme-gene co-evolution * The limits of sociobiology * An orgasm saved my life * Sex in the modern world * A memetic theory of altruism * The altruism trick * Memes of the New Age * Religions as memeplexes * Into the Internet * The ultimate memeplex * Out of the meme race * References * Index From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meme_Machine: Some(memes): * Copy-the-product e.g. make a copy of the soup. This is more prone to error since it requires an analytic capability of the soup itself and then a synthetic ability to combine the recognised elements. Any inserted errors will be passed on in the event of this copy of a soup being copied. * Copy-the-instructions e.g. make a copy of the soup recipe. This is less error prone since the important elements of the soup are identified and the synthetic method explained. Any errors in using the recipe will not be passed on to future copiers since they will receive the recipe itself. * Meme Fear The fear that the idea we are vessels for memes unacceptably undermines the popular understanding of free will and autonomy. (Blackmore 8-9). * Memeplex Memes that are replicated together, such as religions and cultures. (Blackmore 19-24). * Memetic Theory of Altruism She proposes that meme theory explains altruism better than genetic. That other things being equal, more people will observe altruistic behavior than selfish behavior, will like the altruistic person better than the selfish one, and will be more likely to adopt the behaviors of the altruistic person than the selfish one. (Blackmore 154-158).