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The Meme Machine

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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.

Susan 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.

©1999 Susan Blackmore; foreword copyright 1999 by Richard Dawkins (P)2019 Tantor Anthropology Biological Sciences Biology Developmental Psychology Evolution Evolution & Genetics Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Social Sciences Sociology
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Most relevant
Memetics is an important concept. Having read "the selfish gene" that was already very clear to me. If you properly understand what is said in that book, the first 60% of this book will not he very new to you. otherwise it is a decent clarification.

The last 20% is very good and adds to understanding. but this book needs an update. given the way our digital world has changed in the last 20 years.

the author has now coined the term "tremes" for the technical memes and the third replicator. this book could do with an epilog explaining these concepts or (even better) a sequel.

important insights

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If you want to understand why you and others think what you think - this is a book to go

Truth about who we are

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This is the single most thought provoking book I have ever read! Mind blown! Beautifully read.

OMG

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A comprehensive argument for the recognition of a second replicator in addition to the gene. The meme theory explains a lot and the explanation is entertaining and challenging.

Thought provoking and persuasive

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