2000 TheMemeMachine

• (Blackmore, 2000) ⇒ Susan J. Blackmore. (2000). “The Meme Machine." Oxford University Press.

Subject Headings: Meme, Memetics, Origin of Language, Popular Science.

Cited By

• http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%222000%22+The+Meme+Machine

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meme_Machine Retrieved:2015-11-22.
  • The Meme Machine (1999) is a popular science book by psychologist Susan Blackmore on the subject of memes. Blackmore attempts to constitute memetics as a science by discussing its empirical and analytic potential, as well as some important problems with memetics. The first half of the book tries to create greater clarity about the definition of the meme as she sees it. The last half of the book consists of a number of possible memetic explanations for such different problems as the origin of language, the origin of the human brain, sexual phenomena, the internet and the notion of the self. These explanations, in her view, give simpler and clearer explanations than trying to create genetic explanations in these fields.

    The idea of memes, and the word itself, were originally speculated by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene although similar, or analogous, concepts had been in currency for a while before its publishing.

    In the book she examines the difficulties associated with the meme including its definition and how to spot one as well as the difficulties which arise from seeing it as being like the gene. She sees the meme in terms of being a universal replicator, of which the gene is but an example, rather than being like the gene itself. Universal replicators possess three key characteristics: high fidelity replication, high levels of fecundity (and so lots of copies) and longevity. She believes that these are earlier days for memes than genes, and that whilst memes have attained/evolved a sufficiently high level of these characteristics to qualify as replicators, they are not as effective replicators as genes by these key characteristics.

    Whilst others have accepted the possible existence of memes it is sometimes the case that they are seen as subordinate to genes. The author suggests that this is not the case now and that memes are independent replicators. Indeed she suggests that memes may now in some cases be driving genetic evolution and be the cause of the abnormally large brain in Homo sapiens. (Blackmore at 75). She notes that human brains began expanding in size at about the same time that we started using tools and suggests that once individuals began to imitate each other, selection pressure favored those who could make good choices on what to imitate, and could imitate intelligently. Id. at 75-76.

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Abstract

What is a meme? First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation: stories, fashions, inventions, recipes, songs, ways of plowing a field or throwing a baseball or making a sculpture. The meme is also one of the most important -- and controversial -- concepts to emerge since The Origin of the Species appeared nearly 150 years ago. In The Meme Machine Susan Blackmore boldly asserts: "Just as 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. " Indeed, Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive -- making tools, for example, or using language -- survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible. These memes then passed themselves on from generation to generation by helping to ensure that the genes of those who acquired them also survived and reproduced. Applying this theory to many aspects of human life, Blackmore offers brilliant explanations for why we live in cities, why we talk so much, why we can't stop thinking, why we behave altruistically, how we choose our mates, and much more. With controversial implications for our religious beliefs, our free will, our very sense of "self," The Meme Machine offers a provocative theory everyone will soon be talking about.

References

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	Author	volume	Date Value	title	type	journal	titleUrl	doi	note	year
2000 TheMemeMachine	Susan J. Blackmore (1951-)			The Meme Machine						2000