Humans are extraordinary creatures, with the unique ability among animals to imitate and so copy from one another ideas, habits, skills, behaviours, inventions, songs, and stories. These are all memes, a term first coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Memes, like genes, are replicators, and this enthralling book is an investigation of whether this link between genes and memes can lead to important discoveries about the nature of the inner self. Confronting the deepest questions about our inner selves, with all our emotions, memories, beliefs, and decisions, Susan Blackmore makes a compelling case for the theory that the inner self is merely an illusion created by the memes for the sake of replication.
The Meme Machine (Popular Science)
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Habits, skills, songs, stories, ideas: humans are marvellously equipped to keep themselves and each other ceaselessly busy and it's as well, for no matter how hard we try, we humans just can't stop thinking. So, says Susan Blackmore, what if consciousness is not some esoteric genetic freebie but is itself the product of an altogether different evolutionary process?
Once humans learned to imitate each other--that is, receive, copy and retransmit "memes"--the rest, Blackmore argues, is a foregone and somewhat chilling conclusion: we are the product of our memes just as we are the products of our genes, the trouble being that memes, like genes, care only for their own propagation. The ability to imitate each other laid us open to ideas good and bad in equal measure. These proliferated in such numbers that individuals, competing to imitate the best imitators, needed bigger and bigger brains to contain the flood. Now our heads are so big, they are barely birthable.
Blackmore's brilliantly argued version of how humans became conscious--not to say downright troubled--demolishes some of the most intractable problems of human evolution and social biology, with flair. Hers is a book full of careful arguments and thrilling conjectures: riddled, in other words, with promising memes. --Simon Ings
Review
Anyone who hopes or fears that memetics will become a science of culture will find this surefooted exploration of the prospects a major eye-opener. Daniel Dennett Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme I am delighted to recommend her book. Richard Dawkins
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Simon Laub
Format:Paperback
Human bodies evolved by natural selection, just as other animals. But still we are different. According to Susan Blackmore thats because we are capable of imitation. We can thereby copy ideas, habits, inventions, songs and stories. I.e. memes. And now memes are as powerful, if not more powerful, than the good old genes, in directing human evolution. I find the idea intriguing, and certainly Susan Blackmore argue well for the idea. The (evolutionary) pressure for imitation skills requires big brains. So we evolve big brains, as people mate with the ones with the most memes. Language is invented in order to spread memes. Film stars, journalists, writers, singers, politicians and artists become the most attractive, as they are the ones who spread the most memes. Things that are hard to explain in a genetic context (such as adoption, birth control, celibacy) are easy to explain in a meme context (the memes are happy with it, as it help spread more memes). Science becomes a process to distinguish true memes from false memes. Fax-machines, telephones, etc. are created (by the memes) in order to spread more memes. Writing is a battleground in the head between memes wanting to be spread etc.
It all rings true to me. Except Susan Blackmores claim that the self is a complex meme. Certainly it is puzzling that blind people are reported thinking that Their "I" is located at their fingertips, when they read Braille. Still there are other explanations to what a human "I" is than memes. Personally, I prefer Antonio Damasios, as he explain edit in the book "the feeling of what happens". Nevertheless, Susan Blackmores book is a very exciting read, with lots of clever thoughts. Or should I say memes?
-Simon
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Ever since Dawkins wrote his chapter on memes in The Selfish Gene, people have become captivated by the meme meme. Several people have attempted to wrap their minds around the concept, and present it in a useful and comprehensive way. While Blackmore's attempt is, I think, the best yet, it tries to do too much, and ends up collapsing under its own weight. Some of the assertions, such as the development of large brains in humans being a function of memes' imperative, while possibly correct in part, lose the force of their argument by their overstatement. Humans are thinking machines, not copying machines, and brains evolved to think. Memes ride along, for better or worse, on the waves created by the constant motion of our thoughts. Not the other way around. I believe memetics will someday prove to be a valuable tool for understanding some cultural and behavioural aspects of humans. But right now, they still more resemble Gould's "meaningless metaphor" description.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Roberto
Format:Paperback
I feel quite ambivalent about the book. In parts I was introduced or reminded of some great concepts and ideas. In other it felt like there was too much speculation. I would be interested to know whether any of the ideas have been tested experimentally.
It may be that to explain the ideas a very complex subject had to be vastly simplified. I kept finding myself thinking of other possible explanations for things to the ones provided.
However it is worth a read and does make you think at its best it can help allow a kind of detachment from your thoughts and also help with them flowing through the mind.
This is probably where alot of the ideas in the book are stemming from Susan Blackmore's experience of Zen meditation mixed in with her vast academic knowledge.
It could have done with someone critically review the text and looking for weakness in arguments.
It may be that to explain the ideas a very complex subject had to be vastly simplified. I kept finding myself thinking of other possible explanations for things to the ones provided.
However it is worth a read and does make you think at its best it can help allow a kind of detachment from your thoughts and also help with them flowing through the mind.
This is probably where alot of the ideas in the book are stemming from Susan Blackmore's experience of Zen meditation mixed in with her vast academic knowledge.
It could have done with someone critically review the text and looking for weakness in arguments.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit flat
Like many other reviewers I found this book a bit flat. The first third of the book is actually very interesting and has some exciting ideas. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J Bakewell
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very intriguing look at how ideas shape us.
Dawkins briefly introduced the term 'meme' in "The Selfish Gene" in 1976, principally to show that the process of natural selection was not dependent on a particular underlying... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jason Mills
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Call to Action (or maybe not)?
Susan Blackmore's book can be a little frustrating at times. What seems at first to be a relatively straightforward premise - that we are perhaps not as in control as we think we... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Gardenque
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dawkins' Meme Infects Blackmore
Ever since Dawkins introduced the meme, almost tangentially, in "The Selfish Gene", it had lain waiting for someone to pick it up and run with it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by RR Waller
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Evolution of Knowledge
At the start of the book Blackmore quotes Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene", saying, "All life evolves from the differential survival of replicating entities. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Baraniecki Mark Stuart
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling and Convincing
A great read, and extremely convincing. Leave all your pre-conceptions of what makes "you" who and what you think you are, and begin. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mark Ware
1.0 out of 5 stars
yada yada yada
Reading this book confirms my suspicion that Susan Blackmore is an intellectual light weight catching a ride on the coat tails of Dawkins and Dennett. Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2011 by graham_525
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing
Generally, I avoid reviewing books which I haven't read all the way through, as I want to give the authors as much benefit of doubt as possible. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2010 by Printul Noptilor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic and I'm only a quarter of the way through!
A brilliantly written and well researched piece of literature. Since I'm currently beginning a study on the meme this book has helped me understand and come up with new methods to... Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2009 by Mr. Adam D. Grant
1.0 out of 5 stars
a metaphor run mad
The whole of meme theory just needs deleting from human discourse and this book proves it. It is the ultimate example of a metaphor run mad, of fetishism in the Marxist sense. Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2009 by F. Roberts
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