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The Meme Machine

Oxford University Press, USA

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Good Book to Introduce Memes

You should read this book if you want an introduction to the science of memes.

Susan Blackmore does a very good job of introducing the concept of memes, discussing some of the development of the science and providing discussion and examples of how memes work and how they influence behavior. This is a far better book than Brodie's "Virus of the Mind", which is also an introduction to memes but lacking the depth of Blackmore's book. Many other reviewers have discussed memes in their reviews, so I will not do so here. Suffice it to say that memes are replicators, like genes, only memes represent the passing on of "anything that can be imitated". Memes are very powerful, and can offset the drive of our genes (Dawkin's "Selfish Gene" concept). Memes can be simple or come in packages, called meme complexes, or "memeplexes"; religion is a common example of a memeplex.

One nice feature of the book is that Blackmore does provide context for the development of the concept of memes - she references many other scientists and psychologists and provides some history around the development of our understanding of the mind, consciousness, genetics and so on, thus providing a small survey of the development of memetic science. I do not think a reader has to necessarily be familiar with other authors or have read Dawkins, Dennett and so on, but it would be helpful to understand the selfish gene concept prior to reading the book, although Blackmore references this idea and it is an easy concept to understand.

The authorship of the book is very good, with sufficient end and footnotes to make it an accessible, yet properly researched discussion of a relatively recent scientific theory. The book does not include a lot of formal scientific material demonstrating the existence of memes or how they work. Still, a good introduction to the subject.

The Replication and Selection of Ideas

At the start of the book Blackmore quotes Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene", saying, "All life evolves from the differential survival of replicating entities." Dawkins went on to ask if there was any other replicator that underwent selection apart from genes and suggested that there was, calling his new concept a "meme".
In a general way a meme is an idea that can be written, broadcast, spoken etc. and which at some point reproduces (ie. enters someone elses mind).

Similarly,as a gene can fail to reproduce and dies (eg. in a dinosaur), a meme can fail to reproduce and fades out (eg. the idea of a flat earth ).

Blackmore starts from here, and explores this second replicator at some length. It soon becomes clear that memes rely on imitation and communication with a great landmark being the growth of the human ability for speech, probably followed by the printed word, and culminating in the amazing modern massive and accurate transfer of information.

The effect of the spread of memes is also clear. As she says, "When the environment changes, a species that can speak, and pass on new ways of copying, can adapt faster than one that can adapt only by genetic change." In other words in an Ice Age you could make a coat rather than waiting to evolve one or you could light a fire to survive the new conditions having seen it done or having heard about it.

Memetic reproduction is helping genetic reproduction in this case and it is no surprise that humanity as "advanced meme manipulators" dominate all other creatures.

What is not so obvious, and which she takes some pains to point out, is that memes are replicators in their own right and are not simply a tool to facilitate genetic reproduction.

Some memes reproduce better than others, and as you would expect we are surrounded by memes that have been tested successfully (eg. our technology) although she shows that a successfully reproducing meme does not necessarily have to be a truthful one.

The worlds religions are memeplexes (collections of self supporting memes) that contradict each other but which have been enormously successful in establishing themselves in the human mind.

Blackmore suggests that they have evolved to reproduce successfully rather like a virus and she gives a set of rules for a successful memeplex: take something unexplained, provide a myth, include a powerful force that can't be tested, add in optional coercion for non-believers, provide a future reward (also untestable) and say that all good people believe in it and that it is the TRUTH.

She looks at the sociobiological view of human behaviour and concludes that "without the concept of the second replicator sociobiology must always remain impoverished". New memes fundamentally alter human behaviour as can be seen in the contrast between modern meme rich societies and the more traditional world.

A further question that she only touches on but that deserved to be looked at more carefully is where this memetic reproduction and selection takes place.
At present it is in the human mind but it is possible to imagine that machines could transmit and select memes themselves.

We would then have a new substrate for memetic evolution with different objectives from our own, and as she says, "we might be quite excluded from their kind of cultural evolution." - a worrying prospect.

Are we just products of DNA and Memes? Who knows.

I just finished reading a book by Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine.

Meme may be an unfamiliar term to you so I will attempt to explain to the best of my limited ability. All of us are familiar with DNA and genes; these can also be termed replicators. It is how the blueprint of a species is passed down the generations. Modifications/mutations of DNA are the backbone of evolution.

Memes were not first proposed by Ms. Blackmore, but she explores the concept deeply. It is her contention that what separates Homo sapiens from other species is our ability to imitate. There are some other species that do some minor imitation, but none to the extent of humans. How do we imitate or copy? We observe, or receive instructions on how. Memes are a second replicator passing on the instructions for imitation. You want to know how to bake a cake. You grab a cookbook and get the recipe, which is a meme for baking cakes. Everyone decides to wear Mohawks; it is a meme sweeping through a population. Adultery is to be punished by stoning, it is a meme written down in a holy text, which is a basically a collection memes. You get the idea. Memes in the last couple of decades have gone digital and global. There are thousands, maybe millions of memes competing for space within our craniums. Like DNA evolution, the fittest survive and get replicated.

I read the book, and I bought her basic proposition on memes. Towards the end of the book she begins to wax philosophical and takes the meme proposition to its maximum extent. She argues that humans are simply a product of the two replicators, genes and memes. She goes on to argue that all our actions and thoughts are a result of the memes that have inserted themselves into our neurons. She cited a study where the conscious decision to do something happened "after" the brain had initiated the action.

I think most of us feel there is something within us that is semi-controlling this circus we call life. That something is what we call self. Ms. Blackmore argues that there is no self, just a collection memes over which the illusionary self has no control, no freewill.

This is not the first time I have run across this train of thought, but she did approach it from a different point of view. Part of me agrees with her. My basic "belief" is that I am a collection of molecules, cells, whatever, that has some sense of sentience... whatever that means. But I believe when my cells lose life that is it. So if there is no soul, is there a self? Can there be a soul without self? Is there a self? Are we just organisms walking around totally in control of self replicating memes? I would like to think there is a "me". It is vaguely depressing to contemplate that there is not a self.

What do you think?

This book will change the way you think about your thinking

I completed reading the "The Meme Machine" just 1 hour before and am almost compelled to write a review of this book in Amazon. Though I read a lot, this is the first time I am writing a review in Amazon, and there is a valid reason. I strongly feel, it may take some decades to understand the full impact of this book. This book did to Psychology, Religion and Culture what "Origin of Species" did to Biology and Copernicus did to Physics. But for us the relevance of this book is more, since the subject matter of this book is our thinking, speech, behaviour and culture. At the end of the book, the reader almost discovers that he is not the "Doer" and he never was and there is no other "Doer". You almost see your thinking and action in a new perspective, and though there is no religious connotation to that specially the way we understand "Religion", but you feel a lightness and letting go attitude, which I believe what some of the mystics have mentioned as "Being in Grace".

The Meme Machine

This has to be probably the best complementary book to the writings of Dawkins; Dennett, Hitchens, et.al. on the subject of evolutionary study. It is at times very heavy in context but should create an excellent starting point for further study/research on Memetics. I loved every page.