The Meme Machine

UNIVERSAL DARWINISM 17
We should think of it like this – evolutionary theory describes how design is
created by the competition between replicators. Genes are one example of a
replicator and memes another. The general theory of evolution must apply to
both of them, but the specific details of how each replicator works may be quite
different.
This relationship was clearly seen by the American psychologist Donald
Campbell (1960, 1965) long before the idea of memes was invented. He argued
that organic evolution, creative thought and cultural evolution resemble each
other and they do so because all are evolving systems where there is blind
variation among the replicated units and selective retention of some variants at
the expense of others. Most importantly, he explained that the analogy with
cultural accumulations is not from organic evolution per se but rather from a
general model of evolutionary change for which organic evolution is but one
instance. Durham (1991) calls this principle ‘Campbell’s Rule’.
We need to remember Campbell’s Rule when we compare memes and genes.
Genes are instructions for making proteins, stored in the cells of the body and
passed on in reproduction. Their competition drives the evolution of the
biological world. Memes are instructions for carrying out behaviour, stored in
brains (or other objects) and passed on by imitation. Their competition drives
the evolution of the mind. Both genes and memes are replicators and must obey
the general principles of evolutionary theory and in that sense are the same.
Beyond that they may be, and indeed are, very different – they are related only
by analogy.
Some critics have tried to dismiss the whole idea of memetics on the grounds
that memes are not like genes, or that the whole idea of memes is only an ‘empty
analogy’. We can now see why these criticisms are misguided. For example,
Mary Midgley (1994) calls memes ‘mythical entities’ that cannot have interests
of their own, ‘an empty and misleading metaphor’, a ‘useless and essentially
superstitious notion’. But Midgley has misunderstood the way in which
replicators can be said to have power or ‘interests of their own’ and therefore she
simply misses the strength and generality of evolutionary theory. Memes are no
more ‘mythical entities’ than genes are – genes are instructions encoded in
molecules of DNA – memes are instructions embedded in human brains, or in
artefacts such as books, pictures, bridges or steam trains.
In a radio debate, Stephen Jay Gould (1996b) called the idea of memes a
‘meaningless metaphor’ (though I am not sure one can actually have a
meaningless metaphor!). He goes even further and rejects the very notion that
ideas and culture can evolve, pleading ‘I do wish that the term “cultural