The Meme Machine

100 THE MEME MACHINE
They are now driven by the memes. This is the origin of the dramatic increase
in brain size. This theory predicts not only an increasingly large brain but a
brain that is specifically designed to be good at spreading the most successful
kinds of memes. I shall argue that this is exactly what we have, and that this
explains the evolution of language.
If successful memes drive the evolution of the brain, then we need to ask
which memes these are. To some extent the success of memes is a matter of
serendipity and accidents of history. In our long past it might have been the case
that long hair or ringlets, painted faces or scarred legs, singing, worshipping the
sun or drawing pictures of insects, came to be the favoured memes. These
would then have exerted pressure on the genes to provide brains that were
especially good at copying these particular things. If the forces of accident were
the major pressures in memetic evolution we would have little hope of ever
making sense of our past. However, I am going to assume that overwhelming
these forces of serendipity are the fundamental principles of evolutionary theory.
That is, there are some basic qualities that make for a successful replicator – in
this case a meme.
Dawkins (1976) identifies three criteria for a successful replicator: fidelity,
fecundity, and longevity. In other words, a good replicator must be copied
accurately, many copies must be made, and the copies must last a long time –
although there may be trade-offs between the three. We must always be careful
of comparisons with genes, but we can usefully consider how they match up to
these requirements.
Genes are high on all three. Their method of replication is extremely
accurate. That is, genes have high fidelity in the sense that very few errors are
made when long sequences of genetic information are copied. When errors are
made there are elaborate chemical systems for repairing them. Of course, there
are some remaining errors, and these contribute to the variation that is essential
for evolution, but the errors are very few. Also, the process is digital, which
makes for much higher fidelity, as we have already seen.
Genes, at least some of them, are extremely fecund, producing masses and
masses of copies, though the fecundity varies with the kind of environment a
species inhabits. Biologists distinguish two kinds of selection at the extremes of
a continuum: r-selection and K-selection. r-selection applies in unstable and
unpredictable environments where it pays to be able to reproduce rapidly and
opportunistically when resources allow. High fecundity, small size and longdistance
dispersal are favoured, as in frogs, flies and rabbits. K-selection
operates in stable, predictable environments where there is heavy competition