The Meme Machine

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202 THE MEME MACHINE may explain the persistence of religion in scientifically literate societies and in societies in which political dogma has tried to erase all religious behaviour – and failed. Perhaps our brains and minds have been moulded to be naturally religious and it really is difficult to use logic and scientific evidence to change the way we think – difficult, but not impossible. Science and religion I have implied that science is, in some sense, superior to religion, and I want to defend that view. Science, like religion, is a mass of memeplexes. There are theories and hypotheses, methodologies and experimental paradigms, intellectual traditions and long-standing false dichotomies. Science is full of ideas that are human inventions, and have arbitrary conventions and historical quirks built into them. Science is not ‘The Ultimate Truth’ any more than any other memeplex. However, memetics can provide a context in which to see why science offers a better kind of truth than religion. ‘We are designed by natural selection to be truth-seeking creatures. Our perceptual systems have evolved to build adequate models of the world and predict accurately what will happen next. Our brains are designed to solve problems effectively and to make sound decisions. Of course, our perception is partial and our decision-making less than brilliant – but it is a lot better than useless. If we had no memes, that would be that; we would have the best understanding of the world that could be acquired in the circumstances. But we do have memes, and with memes come not only new ways of controlling and predicting the world, but meme tricks and free-loading memes, misleading memes and false memes. Science is fundamentally a process; a set of methods for trying to distinguish true memes from false ones. At its heart lies the idea of building theories about the world and testing them, rather like perceptual systems do. Science is not perfect. Scientists occasionally cheat to gain power and influence, and their false results can survive for decades, misleading scores of future scientists. False theories thrive within science as well as within religion, and for many of the same reasons. Comforting ideas are more likely to last than scary ones; ideas that exalt human beings are more popular than those that do not. Evolutionary theory faced enormous opposition because it provided a view of humans that many humans do not like. The same will probably be true of
RELIGIONS AS MEMEPLEXES 203 memetics. However, at the heart of science lies the method of demanding tests of any idea. Scientists must predict what will happen if a particular theory is valid and then find out if it is so. That is precisely what I have tried to do with the theory of memetics. This is not what religions do. Religions build theories about the world and then prevent them from being tested. Religions provide nice, appealing and comforting ideas, and cloak them in a mask of ‘truth, beauty, and goodness’. The theories can then thrive in spite of being untrue, ugly, or cruel. In the end, there is no ultimate truth to be found and locked up forever, but there are more or less truthful theories and better or worse predictions. I do defend the idea that science, at its best, is more truthful than religion.
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The Meme Machine Susan Blackmore 19
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Foreword by Richard Dawkins As an u
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FOREWORD ix Grinning Idiot Press’
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FOREWORD xi following confident pre
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FOREWORD xiii visiting the school d
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FOREWORD xv about genetic selection
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FOREWORD xvii would see them) of in
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xx THE MEME MACHINE Adam Hart-Davis
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2 THE MEME MACHINE human supremacy
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4 THE MEME MACHINE accidentally lef
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6 THE MEME MACHINE We need a name f
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8 THE MEME MACHINE own creations, a
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CHAPTER 2 Universal Darwinism Darwi
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12 THE MEME MACHINE than can surviv
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14 THE MEME MACHINE questions - wha
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16 THE MEME MACHINE allow some meme
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18 THE MEME MACHINE evolution” wo
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20 THE MEME MACHINE Imagine two mem
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22 THE MEME MACHINE congested commu
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CHAPTER 3 The evolution of culture
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26 THE MEME MACHINE Inventions as m
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28 THE MEME MACHINE human race’ (
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30 THE MEME MACHINE Whose advantage
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32 THE MEME MACHINE He was absolute
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34 THE MEME MACHINE The Stanford ge
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36 THE MEME MACHINE largely takes t
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38 THE MEME MACHINE Written words m
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40 THE MEME MACHINE Mithen 1996; Tu
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42 THE MEME MACHINE it up. Even whe
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44 THE MEME MACHINE a tree - which
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46 THE MEME MACHINE What about emot
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48 THE MEME MACHINE learning that i
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50 THE MEME MACHINE already knew ho
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52 THE MEME MACHINE from your persp
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54 THE MEME MACHINE which is a suff
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56 THE MEME MACHINE specialised rep
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58 THE MEME MACHINE that only digit
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60 THE MEME MACHINE affect the gene
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62 THE MEME MACHINE Emily makes wil
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64 THE MEME MACHINE remembers an ac
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66 THE MEME MACHINE memes around wi
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68 THE MEME MACHINE animals, some d
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70 THE MEME MACHINE There is still
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72 THE MEME MACHINE and ability to
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74 THE MEME MACHINE An influential
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76 THE MEME MACHINE The connection
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78 THE MEME MACHINE will get less o
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80 THE MEME MACHINE tune quickly. O
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CHAPTER 7 The origins of language W
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84 THE MEME MACHINE In other words,
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86 THE MEME MACHINE imbalance is ob
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88 THE MEME MACHINE facial expressi
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90 THE MEME MACHINE Brain lateralis
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92 THE MEME MACHINE increasing the
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94 THE MEME MACHINE Universal Gramm
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96 THE MEME MACHINE Intelligence, p
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98 THE MEME MACHINE So how and why
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100 THE MEME MACHINE They are now d
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102 THE MEME MACHINE copying machin
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104 THE MEME MACHINE competition to
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106 THE MEME MACHINE of the terms t
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CHAPTER 9 The limits of sociobiolog
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110 THE MEME MACHINE thickness of a
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112 THE MEME MACHINE artificial int
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114 THE MEME MACHINE spread in nume
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116 THE MEME MACHINE approximation)
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118 THE MEME MACHINE is killed off
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120 THE MEME MACHINE and humans hav
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122 THE MEME MACHINE number of our
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124 THE MEME MACHINE kind of behavi
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126 THE MEME MACHINE effort in prod
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128 THE MEME MACHINE concealed ovul
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130 THE MEME MACHINE the best users
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CHAPTER 11 Sex in the modern world
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134 THE MEME MACHINE genes, and tho
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136 THE MEME MACHINE arguments depe
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138 THE MEME MACHINE Celibacy We ca
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140 THE MEME MACHINE concerned with
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142 THE MEME MACHINE changing and f
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144 THE MEME MACHINE politician int
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146 THE MEME MACHINE possible and,
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148 THE MEME MACHINE (1991) calls
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150 THE MEME MACHINE times in the h
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Page 178 and 179: CHAPTER 13 The altruism trick In to
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252 THE MEME MACHINE Freeman, D. (1
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254 THE MEME MACHINE Lynch, A., Plu
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256 THE MEME MACHINE bottlenose dol
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258 THE MEME MACHINE Wills, C. (199
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The Meme Machine

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