http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics
I'd like to discuss Memetics. Of all the things presented in God Delusion, this was the most original to me (but apparently has been a field of study for 30+ yrs now). It's very easy to understand if you think of brains as computers. Some information is easily programmable and thus easily passed on while other information is more difficult to code and thus less likely to evolve on any wide scale. There are broad and important implications to this work in my opinion. I need to read more books by more modern memeticists. But let's discuss this.
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When you say "has been a field of study for 30+ yrs now" I think I remember that in God Delusion Dawkins mentions bringing up "memes" in The Selfish Gene. So, in my mind this is like Scientologists saying that "dianetics" has been a field of study for many years. Can you purpose something, not do any science, and then 30 years later say it is a field of study? It kind of seems like a faux-science in that, at least in God Delusion, he never actually does any real science to back up his claims. I would say it is more of a philosophy, rather than a science. But I will read the wiki article and do the discussion due diligence.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that some ideas move through time better than others makes it a worthy discussion. He just calls this memes. If I understand him correctly, where memes originally meant a kind of memory gene, then I don't think that's at all right but I do think there's truth to the evolution of prevailing wisdoms. For example, the current culture of materialism is particularly appealing for some reason to many. This is a combination of the mind, the govt, the culture, and perhaps other factors less easy to observe.
ReplyDeleteMeme(s): a cultural unit synonymous to genes as a hereditary unit.
ReplyDeleteLargely, I find memes to be an oversimplification. For instance, a single meme is not responsible for religion. Like genes, likely dozens to thousands of memes construct someones identity and allures them to religion. For instance, I might call pride a meme. Think back to Malcom Gladwell's discussion in Outliers about the southern boys and anger in the University of Michigan study. Now as I consider pride I could probably tease out just as many environmental factors as I could genetic factors that would describe an individual's pride.
Conclusion:
1) Say Pride is an upsidedown bush. The main stalk is the outward identity of pride. The branches that branch off the main stalk and the branches that branch off the branches of the main stalk (and so on) are genetic and environmental factors. In this scenario, Memes would be the blanket you cover the upsidedown bush with before a storm comes. It covers the whole bush.
2) Using the above scenario, a meme is good for grossly summarizing an observance. But it is insufficient at teasing out the intertwined branches of nurture vs. nature, and ergo can study them as this level.
3) Assuming religion is a meme (as Dawkins does) this meme would not be a blanket over a single upsidedown bush (pride) but hundreds of upsidedown bushes (attitudes, attributes, social-endowments, skill sets)
Ultimately, individuals choose whether or not to continue a meme that may be given to them from their culture(s). This may be the sun in my bush analogy. Because depending on it, the bush will or will not grow (free will).