The meme machine
Author:
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Publication Date:
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Language:
English
Description
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 Species appeared nearly 150 years ago.
In The Meme Machine Susan Blackmore boldly asserts: "Just as the 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.
In The Meme Machine Susan Blackmore boldly asserts: "Just as the 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.
More Details
ISBN:
9780198503651
9780192862129
9780192862129
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 33414335-e966-8828-969e-35643b7e7a34 |
---|---|
Grouping Title | meme machine |
Grouping Author | susan j blackmore |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-12-01 20:39:17PM |
Last Indexed | 2024-12-02 04:45:59AM |
Solr Fields
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author
Blackmore, Susan J., 1951-
author_display
Blackmore, Susan J.
available_at_lcocollege
LCO College Library
detailed_location_lcocollege
Lac Courte Oreilles Adult Nonfiction
display_description
Uniquely among animals, humans are capable of imitation and so can copy from one another ideas, habits, skills, behaviors, inventions, songs and stories. These are all memes, a term first coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976. According to memetic theory, memes, like genes, are replicators, competing to get into as many brains as possible, and this memetic competition has fashioned our minds and culture, just as natural selection has designed our bodies. Can the analogy between memes and genes lead us to powerful new theories that actually explain anything important? This book ends by confronting the deepest questions of all about ourselves: the nature of the inner self, the part of us that is the centre of our consciousness, that feels emotions, has memories, holds beliefs and makes decisions. Author Blackmore contends that this inner self is an illusion, a creation of the memes for the sake of their own replication.--From publisher description.
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Books
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33414335-e966-8828-969e-35643b7e7a34
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9780192862129
9780198503651
9780198503651
itype_lcocollege
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last_indexed
2024-12-02T10:45:59.183Z
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literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
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owning_library_lcocollege
LCO College Library
owning_location_lcocollege
LCO College Library
primary_isbn
9780198503651
publishDate
1999
2000
2000
publisher
Oxford University Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Behavior evolution
Imitation
Memetics
Social psychology
Sociobiology
Imitation
Memetics
Social psychology
Sociobiology
title_display
The meme machine
title_full
The meme machine / Susan Blackmore
title_short
The meme machine
topic_facet
Behavior evolution
Imitation
Memetics
Social psychology
Sociobiology
Imitation
Memetics
Social psychology
Sociobiology
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